Plane Crash Wrongful Death Lawyer: What Families Need to Know

What Your Family's Claim Is, and What It Is Not

A wrongful death claim is a civil claim brought on behalf of surviving family members when a death is caused by another party's wrongful act, neglect or default. In an aviation case, that conduct might involve how an aircraft was flown, maintained, designed or built. Whether any of it applies to a particular crash depends entirely on the facts.

A wrongful death claim is not a criminal case. No one is prosecuted through it, and it does not depend on the government acting. It is also separate from the federal safety investigation that follows most crashes. The investigation asks what happened so that future accidents can be prevented. The civil claim asks whether someone owed a legal duty, broke it and caused a death, and what losses the law allows the family to seek.

Aviation cases sit on two distinct layers. The first is federal aviation law: the rules that govern aircraft and operators, and the investigation that follows an accident. The second is state wrongful death law, which usually supplies the claim itself.

No single state's rule is the rule everywhere. Filing deadlines, who may bring the claim and which damages are available differ from state to state. For your family, this means that waiting for the government to act does not by itself protect a civil claim. An early question is which framework governs the loss, and that turns on where the crash happened, what kind of flight it was and who was involved. Those three facts are often a practical starting point for any conversation with an attorney.

Why the NTSB Report Cannot Be Used in Your Family's Case

Two federal agencies appear in almost every aviation death. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the federal agency that certifies aircraft, licenses pilots and sets operating rules for airlines and other operators. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is the independent federal agency that investigates civil aviation accidents and determines their probable cause. Probable cause is the NTSB's official statement of why it concludes an accident happened.

An NTSB investigation moves through stages. While an investigation is open, the Board has not reached a conclusion. A preliminary report records early facts. It is not a finding of cause. A final report sets out the Board's factual findings and, where it reaches one, its probable cause. Reading a preliminary report as the answer can leave a family with a picture that later changes.

Federal law also limits how the NTSB's work can be used in a lawsuit. Under 49 U.S.C. § 1154, subsection (b) provides: "No part of a report of the Board, related to an accident or an investigation of an accident, may be admitted into evidence or used in a civil action for damages resulting from a matter mentioned in the report." The practical result is that a family's case has to rest on independent evidence, even when the Board's conclusions are public.

A separate law, 49 U.S.C. § 1136, covers families after certain crashes involving an air carrier, meaning a company that carries passengers or cargo by air for pay. The law applies to an accident within United States airspace, or airspace delegated to the United States, that involves an air carrier or a foreign air carrier, results in any loss of life, and is one where the NTSB will be the lead investigative agency. For those accidents, the NTSB chairman designates a director of family support services. The chairman also designates an independent nonprofit organization to coordinate emotional care, psychological care and family support. The Board must, to the maximum extent practicable, brief families before any public briefing and individually tell them about its public hearings and meetings, which they may attend.

If your loved one died in a crash like this, the family support director and the Board's briefings can be a source of information while the investigation runs. Families often weigh whether to attend Board hearings, and keep any NTSB materials they receive, knowing the report itself will not carry the civil case.

Which State's Law Applies, and Why It Changes Your Family's Options

Wrongful death is mainly a creature of state law. Each state has its own statute, and that statute decides who may sue, which losses can be claimed and the deadline for filing. Some states let the personal representative of the estate bring the claim. Others look to particular relatives.

The losses state laws commonly name fall into broad groups. Economic damages cover financial losses, such as the support the person would have provided and funeral and burial expenses. Non-economic damages cover losses that are real but not measured on a bill, such as loss of companionship, guidance and, in some states, grief. Some states also allow punitive damages, which are meant to punish, where conduct was willful or reckless. Which categories apply, and in what form, depends on the state and on the facts.

A limitation period, often called a statute of limitations, is the deadline by which a claim must be filed. Each state sets its own. Many run from the date of death, but the starting point and any exceptions come from that state's law. Our pages on a Texas aviation accident lawyer and a California aviation accident lawyer show how two states handle these questions, each under its own statutes.

Fault rules differ as well. If your loved one was flying the aircraft, or is said to share some blame, the state's rule matters. Under comparative fault, a family's recovery may be reduced by any share of fault assigned to the person who died. In a few places, contributory fault can bar recovery altogether.

For a family, which state's law applies can change who may bring the claim, what it may cover and when it must be filed. Questions families often raise with an attorney include who in the family is the right person to bring the claim, whether an estate representative is needed, and which state's deadline is running.

Who May Be Responsible for Your Loved One's Death

A plane crash can raise questions about several parties at once, and no one is responsible simply because a crash happened. Those whose conduct or products may be examined include the operator of the aircraft, which may be an air carrier, a charter (Part 135) operator, a flight school or a private owner. A charter (Part 135) operator is a company that flies passengers or cargo on demand, such as an air taxi, an air ambulance or a sightseeing tour, under a separate set of federal rules. The pilot, the aircraft manufacturer, a maker of an engine or another component, and a maintenance or repair station may also be examined. Air traffic control, a federal function, can be part of the picture too.

For your family, the question is not only what went wrong but who the law can hold answerable for it. Two broad theories usually frame that. Negligence asks whether someone, such as a pilot or a mechanic, failed to act with reasonable care and whether that failure caused your loved one's death. Product liability is a separate theory for when the aircraft or a part may have failed. In many states, it can hold a manufacturer or seller responsible when a defective product causes injury or death, without proof of negligence. It still requires showing a defect, whether in design, in manufacture or in the warnings given, and that the defect caused the death. Whether either theory fits depends on the facts.

When the federal government's own role is at issue, such as air traffic control or FAA certification decisions, separate jurisdictional questions arise about whether a claim may proceed and where.

What is at stake is that each possible party can bring different rules, insurers and records, often before the full investigation record exists. Families often note what they know about the operator, the aircraft and who serviced it. An attorney can help sort out which parties may be worth examining and under which theory.

If the Crash Happened Over Water: The Death on the High Seas Act

Overwater crashes can fall under a federal law instead of a state's. The Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA) is a federal statute that provides a wrongful death claim for deaths at sea. Under 46 U.S.C. § 30302, when a death is caused by "wrongful act, neglect, or default occurring on the high seas beyond 3 nautical miles from the shore of the United States," the personal representative of the person who died may bring a civil action in admiralty. The claim is for the exclusive benefit of the spouse, parent, child or dependent relative.

DOHSA's damages are narrower than many state laws allow. Under 46 U.S.C. § 30303, recovery is "a fair compensation for the pecuniary loss sustained," meaning financial loss. The court divides it among the family members in proportion to each person's loss.

Congress added a special rule for commercial aviation in 46 U.S.C. § 30307. If a death resulted from a commercial aviation accident on the high seas beyond 12 nautical miles from shore, the family may also recover nonpecuniary damages, which the statute defines as loss of care, comfort and companionship. Punitive damages are not recoverable. If the commercial aviation accident occurred 12 nautical miles or less from shore, the chapter does not apply.

In plain terms, if your loved one died in an overwater crash, the distance from shore and whether the flight was commercial can decide whether a state's law or DOHSA governs, who brings the claim and whether losses like companionship can be claimed at all. The crash location in the NTSB's factual record, and the type of flight, are details families often bring to a first conversation so an attorney can help work out which framework applies.

The Evidence Behind Your Family's Case

The evidence in an aviation case is unusually technical, and much of it is not in the family's hands. The operator, the manufacturer and the government usually hold the records that show what happened to your loved one's flight. These often include flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder information, maintenance and inspection records, air traffic control communications, the aircraft and its components, pilot training and certification records, weather data and eyewitness accounts.

Access to cockpit recordings is limited by law. Under 49 U.S.C. § 1154(a), a party generally may not use discovery to obtain a cockpit recorder recording, or parts of a transcript the NTSB has not made public. Discovery is the court process for getting evidence from others. A court may allow it only after a private review in which it decides the public material is not enough for a fair trial and more is needed. Even then, the court must issue a protective order that limits the material's use to the case.

Because Section 1154(b) keeps the NTSB report itself out, independent investigation and expert analysis sit at the center of these cases. For your family, this means the strength of a claim depends on evidence gathered outside the Board's conclusions. The NTSB's factual record still helps families understand what was examined. Our page on airline NTSB accident records shows how those records describe dates, aircraft and investigation status.

If your family member was a passenger, the records that often matter include communications with the operator, tickets or charter agreements, and any photos or video from before or after the flight. Families also tend to keep death certificates, records of the person's income and the names of anyone who saw the flight.

What Families Often Ask Before Speaking With an Attorney

A common first question is whether the NTSB has to finish before a family files. The two run on separate tracks. The investigation follows its own timetable, while the filing deadline comes from the applicable state statute, or from federal law where one such as DOHSA applies. Whether any exception extends a state's deadline depends on that state's law.

Families also ask whether it matters that the flight was an airline flight rather than a small plane or charter. It can. The family-assistance provisions of 49 U.S.C. § 1136 apply to qualifying air carrier accidents. That section also bars an attorney, or any potential party to the litigation, from making unsolicited contact with an injured person or a relative before the 45th day after the accident. This applies to an accident involving an air carrier providing interstate or foreign air transportation, or a foreign air carrier accident within the United States. A private flight or a flight-school crash may involve different operators, records and parties.

A case evaluation is a conversation with our attorney about what happened, which legal framework may apply and what options a family may have. If you are weighing which law reaches your loss, you can request a case evaluation to talk through the flight, the location and the dates involved.