Plane Crash Lawsuit: What Injured Passengers and Families Need to Know

Key Takeaways

An airplane crash lawsuit is not an ordinary personal-injury case with an aircraft in it. Several features set it apart, and each one shapes what a person in your position may face.

• Aviation accidents can involve federal aviation regulations, state tort law, or both, and on international flights a treaty framework such as the Montreal Convention can govern the claim.
• Responsible parties may include an operator, an owner, a manufacturer, a maintenance company or a seller of aircraft parts, and often more than one.
• Limitation periods differ by state and by the type of flight and defendant; no single national deadline applies to every case.
• The National Transportation Safety Board investigates aviation accidents and issues findings, but federal law bars its reports from being admitted into evidence or used in a civil action for damages.
• An accident, however serious, does not by itself prove that anyone was negligent or that any part was defective. The law asks specific questions, and the answers come from evidence.

Plane crash compensation is not decided by the crash alone. It turns on what kind of operation the flight was, who controlled the aircraft and its maintenance, what failed, and which jurisdiction's law reaches the claim.

What Kind of Flight Were You On — and Why It Shapes the Case

The kind of flight is usually the first fact that matters, because it determines which federal operating rules applied and which parties were involved. Civil claims can arise from many kinds of aviation accidents, including commercial airline flights, charter flights, private and small aircraft, helicopters, sightseeing and tour flights, air ambulance flights and flight-school training aircraft.

Federal operating rules for these flights are found in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, organized into separate rule sets usually called "Parts":

• An air carrier, in plain terms, is a company that carries passengers or cargo for hire as a business. Scheduled airline operations are generally conducted under Part 121.
• A charter (Part 135) operator is a company that flies passengers or cargo on demand or on a smaller commuter basis, such as many air taxi, charter and air ambulance flights.
• General aviation flights, including most private and recreational flying, are generally conducted under Part 91.

The difference is not just a label. A charter flight and a privately flown flight on the same model of aircraft can involve different operating rules, different certificate holders and different people in control of the aircraft. A sightseeing helicopter, a corporate jet, a skydiving flight and a training flight each carry their own set of relationships between pilot, operator, owner and school. The site's pages on small plane crashes and private jet crashes explain how the Part 91 and Part 135 distinction plays out for those flights.

For you, the category matters because it points to which rules applied and whose names belong in the picture, which in turn affects the deadline and law that may govern. If you are trying to work out which category your flight fell into, the ticket, the booking confirmation, the tour or charter paperwork, and the name painted on or associated with the aircraft are often where that answer starts. A conversation with an attorney can help sort out which category applies when the paperwork is unclear, which it often is when a flight was booked through a third party.

How Aviation Accidents Happen — and What the NTSB's Role Is

Many families reasonably want one answer first: why did this happen. The honest answer is that the cause of a specific crash is a matter for evidence, and it often takes a long time to establish.

In general terms, aviation accidents are investigated across several broad areas, including mechanical failure, maintenance work, weather, human factors in the cockpit or on the ground, and air traffic control. None of those categories describes any particular accident, and a crash does not tell anyone which one, if any, was involved.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is the independent federal agency that investigates civil aviation accidents in the United States. Its work generally moves in stages:

• A preliminary report is an early, factual account of what investigators know shortly after the accident. It is not a conclusion about cause.
• A final report is the NTSB's completed account of the investigation, issued when its work is done.
• A probable cause is the NTSB's own statement, in its final report, of what it determined most likely caused the accident.

While only a preliminary report exists, the investigation is open, and nothing in it is a finding of cause. Even a final report does not decide a lawsuit. Under 49 U.S.C. § 1154(b), "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."

That rule matters to an injured passenger or a grieving family because a civil case runs on its own track. Whatever the NTSB eventually says, a court case has to prove its points with its own evidence, gathered and tested through the court process. Families sometimes wait for the final report before thinking about anything else; it can help to know that the civil case does not depend on it.

Who Could Be Answerable for Your Injuries — and Why It Is Often More Than One Party

Aviation involves layers of people and companies, and responsibility in a crash case can follow any of those layers. The potential defendants are described here only by type:

• The operator is the entity that operated the flight, often under its own federal certificate.
• The owner may be a different person or company than the operator, particularly where an aircraft is leased or managed by someone else.
• A manufacturer may have made the airframe, an engine, the avionics or a single component part.
• A maintenance company may have performed inspection, repair or overhaul work on the aircraft or a component.
• A seller or distributor of a part can sit in the chain between a manufacturer and the aircraft.
• The federal government can be a defendant where a claim involves the conduct of its employees, such as air traffic control.

If a part on the aircraft may have failed, the question for you is whether a product liability claim reaches those who made or sold it. That area of law allows an injured person to bring a claim against those who made or sold a product that was defective and caused harm. Such a claim generally requires showing a defect and that the defect caused the injury, not merely that an accident occurred. Negligence claims against an operator, owner or maintenance company ask different questions: whether there was a duty of care, whether it was breached, and whether that breach caused the harm.

Claims against the United States follow the Federal Tort Claims Act. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b), federal district courts have exclusive jurisdiction over claims for money damages for personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of a government employee acting within the scope of employment, where a private person in the same circumstances would be liable under the law of the place where the act or omission occurred. The definitions in 28 U.S.C. § 2671 state that "Federal agency" does not include any contractor with the United States, and 28 U.S.C. § 2680 lists exceptions, including claims based on a discretionary function or duty and any claim arising in a foreign country.

Whether any of these parties bears legal responsibility depends on the facts of the specific accident: what failed, who maintained it, who was operating the aircraft and under whose control. For someone in your position, the stake is the reach of the claim, because a claim that leaves someone out can be narrower than the facts support. Identifying each party that may be involved, and which rules govern each, is part of what a conversation with an attorney can help sort out.

The Records That May Show What Happened on Your Flight

If you were a passenger, or are a family member trying to understand a flight you were not on, much of the evidence in an aviation case sits in places you have never seen. Knowing what exists helps make sense of how these cases are built.

• A flight data recorder (FDR) is an onboard device that records the aircraft's operating data, such as altitude, speed and control inputs.
• A cockpit voice recorder (CVR) is an onboard device that records sound in the cockpit, including the crew's conversation.
• Aircraft maintenance logs and airworthiness records show what inspections, repairs and parts the aircraft received.
• Air traffic control communications and radar data show what was said between the flight and controllers and where the aircraft was.
• NTSB investigative records, including factual reports and docket materials, are made available to the public through the NTSB.
• Photographs, video and physical evidence from the accident site can show the wreckage and conditions.
• Medical records document the injuries, the treatment and its course.
• The names and contact information of witnesses, including other passengers and people on the ground.

Cockpit recordings are handled under special rules. Under 49 U.S.C. § 1154(a), a party in a court case generally may not use discovery to obtain a cockpit recorder recording or parts of a transcript the NTSB has not made public. A court may allow it only after reviewing the material privately and deciding that what is public is not enough for a fair trial, and when it does, the court must issue a protective order limiting its use to that proceeding.

Aircraft registration information is a public federal record, and it is often where the question of who owned an aircraft begins. Injured people and families often keep their own records together as well: the medical records, any letters or messages received from an operator or insurer, and their own photographs or video. What this means for you is that some evidence is in your hands already, while other evidence, such as cockpit recordings, can be reached only through the court process and its limits.

Injuries and What the Law May Allow as Damages

Aviation accidents can cause serious physical harm, including traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, burns, fractures and internal injuries, along with psychological trauma that can last long after the physical healing. For many survivors, the injury reshapes work, family life and the years ahead, and that is what the law of damages tries to account for.

Depending on the state and the facts, the categories the law may allow can include:

• Economic damages, such as past and future medical expenses, lost income and lost earning capacity, meaning the reduced ability to earn in the future.
• Non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium. Loss of consortium is the loss a spouse or close family member suffers in companionship, care and the relationship itself because of the injury.

Wrongful death is a claim brought when a person dies because of another party's wrongful conduct or a defective product; it belongs to the family or the estate under the law that applies. State wrongful-death laws commonly address categories such as funeral and burial expenses, loss of financial support and loss of companionship, but who may bring the claim and what it may include differ from state to state. The site's page on aviation wrongful death claims goes into that in more depth.

The Death on the High Seas Act is a federal law; 46 U.S.C. § 30301 gives the chapter that short title, and it can matter when a death occurs over the open sea rather than over land. Under 46 U.S.C. § 30308, the chapter does not affect the law of a State regulating the right to recover for death, and it does not apply to the Great Lakes or to waters within the territorial limits of a State.

Whether damages are available at all, and in which categories, depends on the applicable law and the facts of the case. Nothing about the severity of an injury, on its own, establishes that anyone is responsible for it.

Which Law Reaches Your Claim — Federal, State or International Treaty

Aviation law works in layers, and keeping them separate is one of the first things that shapes any case. Which layer applies can change the deadline, the damages rules and the court.

If a pilot, operator or maintenance company broke a federal safety rule, that can matter to your claim, but it is not the end of the question. Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations sets safety standards for aircraft operations, pilots, maintenance and equipment. A violation of one of those rules may be relevant to a negligence claim, but it does not by itself establish liability; the claim still has to show causation and harm.

State tort law, meaning the law of negligence and product liability, governs most claims arising from domestic aviation accidents. That is where limitation periods, comparative or contributory fault rules (how a court treats fault shared among several parties) and damages rules come from, and they differ from state to state. No state's rule, California's included, is the rule everywhere. A crash can also involve more than one state: the state of departure, the state where the aircraft went down, and the states where the parties are based.

If your flight crossed an international border, a treaty may set the rules instead. The Montreal Convention (the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, 1999) governs claims against air carriers for passenger death, injury or delay on international flights. Where it applies, it sets its own rules for liability and its own time limit, and it can sit alongside or in place of the state-law rules that would otherwise apply.

The Federal Tort Claims Act, discussed above, is the separate federal framework for claims against the United States, with its own procedures and time limits.

For families after a death, 49 U.S.C. § 1136 adds a federal layer of support. After an accident within U.S. airspace involving an air carrier or foreign air carrier, resulting in any loss of life, and for which the NTSB will be the lead investigative agency, the NTSB's Chairman must designate a director of family support services as the families' federal point of contact and a liaison with the carrier, and designate an independent nonprofit organization to coordinate emotional, psychological and family support services. The NTSB also has primary federal responsibility for facilitating the recovery and identification of fatally injured passengers in those accidents. Under § 1136(g)(2), after an accident involving an air carrier providing interstate or foreign air transportation, or a foreign air carrier accident within the United States, no unsolicited communication about a potential personal-injury or wrongful-death action may be made by an attorney or any potential party to the litigation to an injured person or a relative before the 45th day following the date of the accident.

For you, the framework that applies can decide the deadline, the damages rules and the court, and it depends on the type of flight, the route and the parties involved. Sorting out which layer governs is often among the first things a conversation with an attorney addresses.

Filing Deadlines — Why the Type of Flight and the State Where You File Both Matter

A statute of limitations is the law's deadline for filing a lawsuit; once it passes, a claim can be barred entirely, whatever its merits. For someone recovering from injuries or arranging a funeral, that is a hard fact to hear, and it is one reason the type of flight matters so early.

Limitation periods differ by state, and no single national deadline applies to all domestic aviation accident claims. Depending on the state and the claim, a period may be measured from a date such as the accident or a death, and exceptions can apply, so the same crash can carry different deadlines for different claims and different defendants. Product liability claims, negligence claims and wrongful-death claims may each carry their own period under a state's law.

Two other frameworks set their own timing. Claims against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act follow that Act's own procedural steps and time limits, which are separate from any state's. Claims governed by the Montreal Convention follow the treaty's own limitation period rather than a state's.

Because the deadline depends on the type of flight, the parties and the state, which period governs is often one of the first questions a family or an injured passenger wants answered. If that question is on your mind, a conversation with an attorney can help identify which frameworks and periods may apply to the flight involved; you can request a case evaluation to talk it through.

Questions Worth Asking Before You Speak With an Aviation Attorney

A first conversation about an aviation accident tends to go further when the basic facts are gathered in one place. None of this is a checklist anyone has to complete; it simply reflects the questions these cases usually raise.

• The type of flight: a commercial airline, a charter, a private or general aviation flight, a helicopter, a sightseeing tour, an air ambulance or a flight-school aircraft.
• What is known about the aircraft: its registration number, the operator, and the owner if different.
• Whether the NTSB has opened an investigation, and its current status: open with a preliminary report, or closed with a final report.
• The nature and extent of the injuries, or the circumstances of a death.
• What records the person or family already has, such as medical records, communications from the operator or an insurer, and photographs or video.
• Whether any party has already been in contact, such as an insurer, the operator or a government agency.

Each of these answers connects to a question covered above: the type of flight points to the rules and deadlines, the aircraft details point to who may be responsible, and the records already in hand are part of the evidence. Having them together can make it easier for an attorney to say which frameworks may apply.

Some families also find it useful to look at how a particular kind of flight is treated on its own; the site has separate pages on cargo plane crashes and skydiving plane crashes.

This page is a national overview. It does not set out any one state's deadlines, fault rules or damages rules, it does not describe the cause of any specific accident, and it gives no medical advice about any injury.