Any airplane accident attorney will tell you just how complex air crashes are. The machines themselves are some of the most intricate ones man ever made. Powered flight is a complicated interplay of advanced mechanics, physics and the skills of the men and women who pilot them. An aviation accident attorney knows that when one falls from the sky, it is not because of one single problem.
A complex chain of events
As children, you probably wondered how airplanes fly. You know of propellers and making a paper airplane. These are simple examples of what allow things heavier than air to fly. When it comes to actual airplanes, things get a bit trickier.
Planes are designed to fly, of course. A combination of raw power from its engines, the advanced electronics that run the plane and its very design allow multi-ton machines to cruise through the air higher and faster than any bird. Add to that the skill of the pilots and crew, and airplanes are some of the safest ways for humans to travel.
That is why there are many questions when one crashes. Any airplane accident attorney worth their license will tell you that an airplane will not fall to the ground simply because one part failed. Pilots have landed aircraft with no engines working or part of its fuselage gone. One even got hit by a missile or two and its crew managed to land the jumbo jet.
Any aviation accident attorney knows that a complex chain of events usually brings down one of these machines. Finding out what started this chain reaction and what led to the eventual crash is where the legal debates on liability center on.
Looking for faults
An airplane accident attorney will look at three important areas after an air crash. The first involves mechanical failure. For an aviation accident attorney, what parts failed and how is very important. Parts defects can be because of design flaws or improper maintenance. In the case of catastrophic hull failures, the design of the plane can be at fault although these days it is more a problem of maintenance by the airline.
The other area to check is with the pilot or crew. Every aviation accident attorney who has gone through enough cases will be familiar with survivable mechanical failures or weather conditions that turned tragic because of pilot error. Ground crews can and do make mistakes that endanger the plane and its passengers.
Finally, environmental problems could have caused a plane to go down. This could still be due to human error as the people in charge of aviation safety could ground a plane if the weather is too bad for flying. The trust of pilots on their machines, though, can make them push through with a flight in bad weather, not knowing a poorly maintained or badly designed part has doomed their plane.
Even when a pilot manages to land a stricken plane and you or your loved ones are able to leave safely, the experience can leave emotional and psychological scars that may take years to heal. To pursue damages or a wrongful death case against those responsible, you will need the services of an aviation accident attorney who has long experience in the field.