The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: flowers on July 09, 2013, 10:16:53 pm
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Asiana Airlines will likely end up paying hundreds of millions of dollars to passengers of its flight that crashed in San Francisco on Saturday, according to a leading aviation law expert.
"I don't think there's a claim out there worth less than $1 million. Many will be worth multi-millions," said Arthur Wolk, one of the top personal injury attorneys specializing in air crashes. The Philadelphia-based Wolk said that, as of Monday, he had not been retained by any of the passengers or their families.
The crash, the first fatal airline crash in the United States in nearly four years, occurred Saturday when the Boeing 777 jet attempting to land clipped the end of runway. There were 182 people hospitalized with injuries ranging from severe scrapes to paralysis.
Wolk said even the 123 passengers on the plane who escaped without any physical injuries are likely to see seven-figure settlements from the airline and its insurance carriers due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
"PTSD is an insidious illness," he said. "Many can't return to work. Even those who think they're fine and return to work, six months later they find out they're a blob on the floor because it finally comes home to roost."
Wolk said his first settlement based on PTSD was for a flight attendant who escaped without physical injury when a United Airlines flight crashed in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1989. Since then PTSD settlements have become common for survivors of airline crashes.
Wolk said that none of the US Airways passengers whose plane landed in New York's Hudson River in January 2009 filed suits following that crash. But he said US Airways (LCC, Fortune 500) gave each a cash settlement -- even though the flight crew was celebrated for landing the crippled plane and saving everyone's life. The airline did have a comment on payments in that case.
Related: Asiana shares tumble following crash
http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/08/news/companies/asiana-passengers/
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I found it interesting on Saturday how Greta kept saying in this case people could thank attorneys for the fact the plane didn't burn immediately and passengers were able to get out without serious burns. Today I heard her husband was one of "those" attorneys.
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I found it interesting
Interesting how?
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I found it interesting on Saturday how Greta kept saying in this case people could thank attorneys for the fact the plane didn't burn immediately and passengers were able to get out without serious burns. Today I heard her husband was one of "those" attorneys.
Greta is an idiot in this case. Most safety improvements have been at the the orders of various governments (US, UK, Japan, EU mostly). I don't think I can come up with one safety improvement that was the result of a lawsuit.
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Interesting how?
She never came out and said that her husband had sued the airlines, she just repeated at least a half-dozen times that we could thank lawyers for all the safety improvements. Then today I find out her husband was one of the main lawyers suing airlines.
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She never came out and said that her husband had sued the airlines, she just repeated at least a half-dozen times that we could thank lawyers for all the safety improvements. Then today I find out her husband was one of the main lawyers suing airlines.
OK thanks for clearing that up.