Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Airplane Accidents

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Car are dangerous to pedestrians and cyclistsAmong rich countries, America is one of the most dangerous for road users especially pedestrians and cyclists.  In The Exceptionally American Problem of Rising Roadway Deaths, an article recently published by the New York Times, Emily Badger and Alicia Parlapiano take an in-depth look at road fatalities in the US compared to other rich countries. They found out that during the Covid19 crisis, most countries in the world saw a decline in fatalities with the exception of the United States, Switzerland and Ireland.  When  comparing national traffic fatalities in 2020 to an average yearly traffic fatalities in 2017 to 2019 , Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Spain, France and Sweden all saw a decline or more than 20% in road fatalities. Italy recorded a 27% decline in traffic fatalities while the united States had a 5% rise in traffic fatalities.

While most rich countries have developed bicycle and pedestrian friendly infrastructures over the last decade, the United States did not do as much

While many countries started to take measures to protect pedestrians and cyclists such as protected bike lanes, lowering of speed limits and adopting safe vehicle technologies such as automatic braking systems, cars got bigger and deadlier in the United States.

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Two houses caught on fire and 3 people were injured after a propane tank exploded in East Meadow, Long Island, NY.  A fire started in a house located on 7th Street. The flames reached two propane tanks that were located on the side of the house and caused a massive explosion. The fire was so intense that the house next door caught on fire as well. One person had to be hospitalized and two others were treated at the scene. It took 3 hours for the firefighters to extinguish the fire.

In the US it is estimated that there are approximatively 60 million propane-fueled devices.  While the usage of propane tanks is restricted in New York City, their usage is common in the rest of New York State for heating water, heating houses and grilling.  Propane explosions and propane deaths are not that common. Explosions are rare but when they occur they are extremely destructive. Injuries resulting from propane tank explosions are often severe burns.

Gas leak or BLEVE?

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Defective Boeing 737 Max groundedThe second fatal crash of a Boeing 737  MAX last Sunday in Ethiopia has led to a worldwide decision by aviation authorities to ground all Boeing 737 MAX. The US was the last of 42 other countries to make this decision.  157 people lost their lives in Sunday’s crash and 189 died in October in Indonesia in a very similar airplane crash.

According to recent investigations both crashes occurred  in a very similar manner. A new flight control system for which pilots weren’t proprely trained may have caused both accidents according to preliminary investigations. According to an article in the New York Times, after the first accidents, the pilots union complained that Boeing didn’t inform pilots that in some cases  the new flight control system could automatically push the nose of the plane down. Experts believe this change may have played a role in both accidents.

PILOTS LOOSING THE BATTLE AGAINST THE NEW FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM

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Marty Martinez plane crash picturesA woman died in a plane accident. 43 year old Jennifer Riordan, a mother of two and a Wells Fargo bank executive was sitting in a plane that just took off from Laguardia airport when one of the engines exploded.

Shrapnel blew out the window where she was sitting nearly sucking her out of the plane. Passengers struggled to pull her back while others tried to stuff clothes to fill the holes.  As the plane was quickly loosing altitude, pilots prepared for an emergency landing in Philadelphia. Terrorized passengers had to use their oxygen masks to be able to breath. The whole scene was completely chaotic with passengers screaming and flight attendants breaking into tears.  A nurse who was on the plane gave CPR to the injured passenger. She was rushed to the hospital after the plain landed. Unfortunately she couldn’t be saved and later on died from her injuries.

Operated by Southwest Airline, the aircraft that was originally heading to Dallas reported the accident as it was 32,000 feet in the air.  Southwest is operating 3500 flights every year. It is the first time that a passenger was killed in a flight accident since the airline started  51 years ago.  The plane was visually inspected on Sunday and no problems were detected.

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helicopter about to drown5 people died in a helicopter accident in New York on Sunday. Only the pilot, 33 year old Richard Vance, survived. The passengers were two 26 year old friends from Dallas, Trevor Cadigan and Brian McDaniel, an Argentinean tourist, 29 year old Carla Vallejos Blanco and two employees of the helicopter company, 34 year old Daniel Thompson and 29 year old Tristan Hill.  They were riding aboard a door-off helicopter that used to be reserved for professional photography but has been recently marketed to tourists as well.  Because the doors are opened during the entire flight, passengers are secured in complicated harness systems. Unfortunately what made the harness safe when in the sky became a death device during the crash. As the helicopter quickly went down in the freezing water of the East River, none of the passengers were able to free themselves from the safety harness. The federal regulators announced yesterday that they would give urgent attention on the use of harnesses for aerial photography.

Before boarding the 5 passengers were required to look at a 10-minute safety video which briefly explains that there is a knife in a pocket of the harness that has to be used to cut a strap in the back of the harness in case of emergency . Tourist are often so excited that they don’t really pay attention to the video. Additionally when someone is upside down panicking in freezing water , everything becomes much more difficult. One would hvae to be trained like a Navy Seal to free himself in such difficult conditions.

The pilot told investigators that a bag or a strap of a bag may have touched a fuel control switch however experts doubt that this theory is plausible.  The pilot then realized he was experiencing engine trouble and decided to attempt an emergency landing. He could have chosen Central Park but he decided to land on the East River instead. The pilot executed what is known as an emergency auto rotation maneuver but the helicopter turned over and sank with the passengers stuck in their safety harnesses. The emergency inflatable pontoons didn’t function proprely. Read more in the NY Post.

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hit and runOn average there is one fatal hit and run accident every week in New York City and too often the police will never be able to identify the driver.  Out of 44,865 hit-and-runs reported to the NYPD in the 2016 fiscal year, there were only 510 arrests. To fight this epidemic, the City Council passed a new bill yesterday. The bill is named after Queens DJ Jinx  Paul who was killed in a hit and tun accident last year in Brooklyn. It was introduced by Coucilman Idanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan). Rodriguez proposes to create a system similar to the existing Amber Alert.  The idea is that the police use the existing Amber Alert technology to send out an alert of hit and run drivers with the available information. The NYPD supports the bill as long as they have an option to op out in case the alert may compromise the investigation or if they don’t have sufficient information.

Read more in the NY Daily News

Picture: courtesy of Maxpixel

 

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Three people died in a plane accident in Long Island, NY. The passengers, two men and a woman had taken off from Myrtle Beach, SC and planned to land in Plainville Connecticut later on during the day. The airplane made a distress call to air traffic control and reported an instrument problem. The plane then disappeared from radar. It crashed on a residential road in Syosset, Long Island, NY. Debris fell from the skies into a school backyard and in residential properties. Witnesses said it was terrifying. Very foggy weather conditions may also have been a factor in the fatal accident. Investigators are still working on finding the exact causes of the crash.

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Two 19 year old Colgate University students were killed in a plane crash  yesterday afternoon in Morrisville, NY. Ryan Adams and Cathryn (Carey) Depuy ,  both Ridgefield natives.  The pair took off from Morrisville airport and flew 10 miles before crashing in a wooded area. They were killed instantly. Read more in the NY Daily News

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A small plane crashed in a backyard in Long Island this morning, killing the pilot who was alone in the plane. Apparently the pilot managed to steer his plane between two houses before crashing in the backyard of one of them on Camille Lane in Suffolk County’s East Patchogue. A mother was attending to an infant in the house. Thankfully they were not injured. (read more here)

NBC 4 New York has obtained exclusive video of the aftermath of the deadly plane crash on Long Island. Note: Audio has been removed.

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