Originally Posted by
Thomas coupling
Chill Lonewolf, hence all my question marks. It is only a start.......
What's come out of a serious accident over here in the UK is that pilots often don't check their owners/operators insurance levels.
They jump into a plane/helicopter and fly it because they love it. But when the wheel comes off - it's the pilot who everybody in law law land targets!
Based on my admittedly non-professional observations of the US liability process, I think the likely candidates are:
Airbus. They obviously have deep pockets, which is a primary consideration. There's also a fairly obvious case against them. The fuel shutoff getting snagged is a significant factor in the incident, and there was a previous NTSB recommendation about the location and propensity to get snagged of the furel control, whcih wasn't addressed. Granted, it's not an Airworthiness Directive, or anything else of a mandatory nature, but you don't need an explicit legal requirement to have a duty of care or whatever the legal term is.
The Float manufacturer. Likely fairly deep pockets, and the failure of their floats to keep the ship upright was a significant factor in the outcome.
The Manufacturer of the harness. Because their harness didn't have a quick release. Granted, their harness wasn't intended for this use, and it's intended use doesn't require a quick release, but those details probably won't matter in a wrongful death lawsuit. They probably have deep pockets and their product was there at the scene. that's really all it takes to get sued in the US.
FlyNYON? Not doubt they will be named, but who knows how much money they actually have. I suppose it depends on their insurance coverage. That will determine how vigorously they are pursued.
I'm not saying the pilot won't be named, but he's almost certainly a much smaller financial target than the above, so that will work in his favor to some degree.