One of the exceptions that permits employees to sue outside of workers' comp is when an employer has inadequate coverage to compensate for the loss. Also, whether it works or not, it's always easier to name all the defendants you can think of in the original claim. If some or all counts are dismissed as to some defendants, you've lost nothing. And, just maybe, they won't be dismissed.

Our legal system is deliberately adversarial. Plaintiffs' attorneys in cases like this know that the defendants are going to have high-powered counsel with killer instinct, so there's no advantage to being "reasonable" from the outset.

That's SOP when filing a lawsuit - allege everything against everybody. It's relatively easy to drop something out of the suit once filed, much harder to add if it turns out you missed someone or something.
Maninthebar - yes I've known and dealt with a number of lawyers over the years. A few came across as fine, outstanding people and good lawyers, I wish I could say they were in the majority. But I can't - far too many were at the opposite end of the spectrum.

I believe that is true for an employee. But for the surviving family to bring suit there are 2 qualifiers that must be satisfied: there is actual harm to the survivors and the employee was not negligent in his death. If in fact the FO was pilot flying then might be hard to pass the latter test. However, each state has different work comp laws.