In this tragic accident, on November 10, 2007, a 25 year old pilot with approximately four hundred (400) hours of flying time was flying banners along the beach in a Piper Pawnee. Plaintiff returned to the airport to drop off the banner at the designated northwest quadrant of the airport. There were two active north/south parallel runways: 36L and 36R. The air traffic controller gave the pilot an instruction to proceed downwind between the two parallel runways to land on the right runway. During the attempted landing, the aircraft crashed as the pilot performed the aerial maneuvers required of the instruction. The Plaintiff survived, but with very serious traumatic brain injury, severe cognitive and neurological deficits. He is permanently disabled. Plaintiff claimed that the instruction was a non-standard instruction and not authorized by the FAA which caused his plane to stall and crash.
Defendant denied Plaintiff’s claims and liability was highly contested. Defendant blamed Plaintiff for stalling the aircraft and argued that if Plaintiff was not comfortable with the instruction he had the authority to decline it and ask for another instruction. Defendant also named Plaintiff’s employer but the jury did not assess any liability to the employer.
This case qualified for The National Law Journal’s “Big Money Wins of 2013” in the Top 50 settlements nationally. It was ranked #6.
The Daily Business Review (DBR) ranked this case among the “Top Florida Verdicts of 2013”. It was #5.
Attorney On the Case: Todd Payne