Plane Crash Lawyer: What Aviation Accident Cases Involve and What Comes Next

Key Takeaways

If you are trying to understand where a claim stands, it helps to know that two separate layers of law shape it. Federal law, through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), sets the safety and certification rules for aircraft, pilots and operators. State law, called tort law, decides most claims for injury and death, including who may sue, what they must prove and when they must file.

• The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the independent federal agency that investigates aviation accidents and states what it finds to be the probable cause, runs its own investigation. Under 49 U.S.C. § 1154(b), no part of an NTSB report about an accident or its investigation may be admitted into evidence or used in a civil action for damages resulting from a matter mentioned in the report.
• Limitation periods, fault rules and damages rules differ from state to state. No single national deadline applies to every case.
• More than one party may bear legal responsibility, depending on the facts.
• A death on the high seas, and some international flights, can bring in additional federal or treaty frameworks.

For someone hurt or grieving, the practical point is that an aviation case is more layered than a typical injury claim. The type of flight, the state involved and the investigation's progress all affect what comes next. A conversation with an attorney at this stage can help sort out which of these layers bear on what happened.

What a Family or Survivor Would Have to Show in a Plane Crash Claim

Most aviation claims rest on one or more of three legal theories, and each asks a different question about what happened to you or your family.

If you believe someone failed to take proper care, the claim is one of negligence, meaning the failure to use reasonable care. It would ask whether that person or company owed a duty of care, whether they breached it, whether that breach caused the harm (causation) and whether there were damages. Each element depends on the facts. A pilot, an operator or a mechanic may owe a duty. Whether that duty was met is the question a case has to answer.

Product liability is the law that applies when a product is alleged to be defective. In aviation, the product may be the aircraft itself, an engine, a component or a system. The claim asks whether there was a defect and whether it caused the harm. Whether a defect existed, and whether it mattered, depends on the evidence.

Wrongful death is a civil claim brought by surviving family members, or a representative on their behalf, when a person dies as a result of another's alleged wrongful act. Who may bring it, what it may include and when it must be filed differ by state.

Federal aviation regulations set safety standards. A violation of one of those standards may be relevant to whether someone acted with reasonable care. It does not, by itself, establish that anyone is liable. And because of the evidence bar in section 1154(b), the NTSB report does not decide a civil case; the facts have to be proven in court in other ways.

An injury does not by itself prove anyone's fault, and a crash does not by itself prove a defect. That can feel slow when the loss is so plain. For someone in this position, the questions worth weighing are which theory fits what is known so far, and who in the family may be the person to bring a death claim. A conversation with an attorney can help match those theories to the facts of the flight.

Why the Kind of Flight You or Your Family Member Was On Shapes the Case

If you were on board, or a family member was, the type of flight is one of the first facts that matters. It determines which federal rules applied to the operator and what duties were owed to you and the others on board.

These are the main categories of flight:

• An air carrier is an airline conducting scheduled commercial passenger service. It operates under the part of federal aviation rules commonly called Part 121.
• A charter (Part 135) operator conducts on-demand or commuter service, such as charters, air taxis and many air ambulance flights. It operates under a separate set of rules commonly called Part 135.
• General aviation covers civil flying other than scheduled airline service and military operations. It includes private planes, many small plane crashes and much flight-school training.
• Helicopter, sightseeing, skydiving and air ambulance flights can fall into different categories depending on how the flight was conducted.

A paying passenger on a charter flight and a student pilot on a training flight stand in different legal positions.

Federal law states the safety priorities behind these rules. Under 49 U.S.C. § 40101, the FAA Administrator is to consider, among other matters, "assigning, maintaining, and enhancing safety and security as the highest priorities in air commerce."

Accidents can involve many circumstances. These include weather, mechanical or component problems, maintenance, pilot decisions, air traffic communications and conditions at an airport. No single circumstance explains any particular crash.

About a specific accident, the NTSB's own record is the authoritative account of what is known. An NTSB investigation usually produces a preliminary report first. That is an early factual account, and it is not a finding of cause. Later comes a final report, which states the probable cause, meaning the NTSB's determination of why the accident happened. When an investigation is open, the cause has not been determined, and this site does not speculate about it.

For families, the wait for those reports can be one of the hardest parts. In the meantime, what is often already known is how the flight was booked and who operated it, and a ticket, charter agreement or school enrollment can help pin down the category. An attorney can help work out which set of rules that points to. The NTSB vs. FAA distinction explains why two agencies appear in the news.

Who May Be Responsible for What Happened to You — and Why That Takes Investigation

If you are asking who is to blame, the honest answer at first is often that it is not yet known. Responsibility in an aviation case is never assumed from the accident itself. It depends on what the facts show about each party's role.

Depending on the facts, these parties may be relevant:

• the operator, meaning the airline or charter company that conducted the flight;
• the aircraft owner, if different from the operator;
• the manufacturer of the aircraft, or of a specific component or system;
• a maintenance or repair company that worked on the aircraft;
• a seller or distributor of a part.

In some accidents, more than one party may bear responsibility. In others, the facts may point to a single party, or to none.

A charter flight can involve an owner who leased the aircraft to an operator, an engine built by one company and overhauled by another, and parts sold through a distributor. Owners and operators are judged on how the flight was conducted and the aircraft maintained. Manufacturers and sellers are judged under product liability law. Maintenance companies are judged on the work they performed.

Much of the evidence about these roles is held by the parties themselves, including maintenance logs, operator certifications, and design and manufacturing records. That is one reason families often find that the question "who is responsible" turns into "who has the records."

When you are recovering from injuries or making arrangements after a death, sorting through ownership, leases and maintenance histories is a great deal to carry. A conversation with our attorney can help you think through which of these parties may matter given the type of flight involved.

What Records Families and Survivors Can Keep, and What Others Hold

If you were injured or lost a family member, some of the records that matter will be in your hands, and others will be held by the operator, manufacturers or investigators.

Some records concern the aircraft and the flight:

• flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder information;
• maintenance and inspection records;
• pilot certificates and training records;
• air traffic control communications;
• the wreckage and individual components.

Others concern the people on board:

• medical records documenting injuries and treatment;
• photographs and video from the scene or from inside the aircraft;
• witnesses' names and accounts;
• tickets, booking confirmations and charter agreements.

Federal law limits how some of this evidence reaches a civil case. 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 or still images the NTSB has not made public. That rule has exceptions. A court may allow discovery after reviewing the material privately ("in camera") if it decides the public material does not give the party enough information for a fair trial and more is necessary. When it does, the court must issue a protective order limiting use of the material to that proceeding.

Federal law also addresses families directly after certain accidents. Under 49 U.S.C. § 1136, after an accident in United States airspace involving an air carrier or foreign air carrier, resulting in loss of life, with the NTSB as lead investigator, the NTSB Chairman designates a director of family support services. The director serves as a federal point of contact for the families. The Chairman also designates an independent nonprofit organization, one with experience in disasters and posttrauma communication with families, which has primary responsibility for coordinating emotional care, psychological care and family support services. The NTSB is to brief families, to the maximum extent practicable, before any public briefing. The same section bars an attorney, or any potential party to the litigation, from making unsolicited communications about a potential injury or wrongful death action to an injured person or a relative before the 45th day following the accident, for accidents involving an air carrier providing interstate or foreign air transportation, or a foreign air carrier in the United States.

Families sometimes describe the first weeks as a blur of calls, forms and news reports. The records they keep from that time, even partial ones, often become the starting point for understanding the case. If you have tickets, photos, medical records or names of witnesses, those are the pieces families commonly bring to a first conversation, and an attorney can help identify which of the records held by others may matter and how the limits above affect access to them.

Injuries, Losses and What the Law May Allow Families and Survivors to Seek

Aviation accidents can cause severe injuries. These include traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, burns, fractures, internal injuries and lasting psychological trauma. Medical records describing those injuries and their treatment are central to any claim.

The law groups damages into categories:

• Economic losses are financial harms that can be documented. They may include medical expenses, lost income and the cost of future care.
• Non-economic losses are harms without a receipt. They may include pain and suffering and loss of consortium, which means the loss of a spouse's or family member's companionship, care and relationship.
• Wrongful death damages are what surviving family members may seek after a death. Depending on the state, they may include loss of financial support, loss of companionship and funeral expenses.

Which categories are available, and how they are measured, differ by state. Whether any damages are recoverable depends on the facts and the law that applies. No page can say what a particular case involves. This page gives no medical advice and describes injuries only in general terms.

A death over open water can bring in a federal law. The Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), 46 U.S.C. § 30302, applies when a death is caused by wrongful act, neglect or default on the high seas beyond 3 nautical miles from the shore of the United States. The decedent's personal representative may bring a civil action in admiralty, the body of law that governs maritime matters, against the person or vessel responsible. The action is for the exclusive benefit of the decedent's spouse, parent, child or dependent relative.

For a family, this means the place where a flight went down can change who brings the claim and which court hears it. If you are living with an injury or a loss, it may help to think about which of these categories describe it, such as ongoing treatment, lost work or the loss of a relationship, and to keep records of the costs. An attorney can help sort out which categories the applicable law recognizes. The aviation wrongful death page walks through how death claims work in more detail.

Federal Law, State Law, and Why the Jurisdiction Question Matters for Your Case

If you are wondering whose rules decide your claim, the answer usually involves both. Federal law sets the safety and certification standards for aviation. State tort law (negligence, product liability and wrongful death) governs most civil claims arising from aviation accidents in the United States, so it is usually state law that decides whether you or your family can recover.

State law decides several issues that matter a great deal to someone in your position:

• Limitation periods, known as statutes of limitations, set the time within which a claim must be filed. The length of the period, when it starts to run and its exceptions all vary by state.
• Fault rules vary too. Some states use comparative fault, which reduces or bars recovery based on a person's share of fault. Others use contributory negligence, a stricter rule.
• Damages rules, including any limits on certain categories, also differ.

No state's rule is the rule everywhere. The state whose law applies can affect which claims are available and when they must be filed. One example is Texas, which has its own two-year period and fault rule, explained on the Texas aviation accident lawyer page.

Some cases bring in law beyond a single state. The Montreal Convention is an international treaty that governs many claims against air carriers arising from international flights. DOHSA, described above, applies to deaths on the high seas beyond 3 nautical miles from shore.

Which law governs is itself a legal question. It depends on where the accident happened, what type of flight it was, where the flight began and ended, and where the parties are. Because that answer shapes both the claims and the deadlines, it is often among the first questions families raise. If that question is weighing on you, requesting a case evaluation is one way to talk through where your accident happened and what kind of flight it was. The broader aviation accident lawyer page covers these layers for other aircraft as well.