Lawsuits Filed from Asiana Airplane Accident at SFO
Asiana Airplane Accident Lawsuit Charges
The passengers of Asiana Airlines Flight No. OZ 214 bound for San Francisco, California—which crashed on July 6, 2013 at San Francisco International Airport — filed personal injury actions. Younga Jun Machorro and her son, Benjamin Hyo-Ik Machorro, who were among the passengers aboard Flight 214, filed a six-page complaint in federal district court in San Francisco on July 15, 2013.
Hector Macharro Jr., Younga’s husband, is also suing the airline for interfering with his wife’s ability to “perform all the duties of a wife and mother, including assisting in maintaining the home, caring for the couple’s child, working to help support the family, and providing support and comfort for her husband.”
“Gross Negligence and Recklessness”
In the complaint, the Macharros accuse the flight crew of flight 214 of “gross negligence and recklessness,” and also accuse the airline of inadequately training and supervising the crew members. The complaint charges that “the Asiana Crash occurred due to gross negligence and recklessness of the Asiana flight crew on Flight 214, in woeful violation of numerous international and United States airline industry standards and established flight rules. Among a (sic) extensive litany of errors and omissions, the Flight 214 crew flight crew failed to observe the most fundamental procedures for a visual landing into [San Francisco International Airport], failed to appropriately monitor flight conditions on approach, and failed to communicate and react in the cockpit to those flight conditions.”
The complaint goes on to charge that “the flight crew of Flight 214 was inadequately trained and supervised by Asiana and failed to comply with the most rudimentary cockpit resource management protocols…. Defendant’s failures constituted a gross, wanton and willful disregard for the rights and safety of all passengers aboard Flight 214 and needlessly caused injuries, damages, and deaths to innocent passengers.”
Liability Limits Under the Montreal Convention (or Warsaw Convention)
The Montreal Convention (formerly the Warsaw Convention), an international treaty between several countries, including the United States and South Korea, provides that Asiana is strictly liable up to about $171,363.64 per passenger for the Macharros’ injuries that took place on board Flight 214. Under the Montreal convention, Asiana can be held liable for more than this per-passenger limit if it fails to prove that it was not at fault for their injuries.
As can be seen from the allegations in their lawsuit, the Macharros blame the airline and its employees for the crash. Once they successfully establish a breach of duty by Asiana or its employees which could have been the actual, legal cause of their injuries, then both passengers will be eligible under the Montreal Convention to recover more than the strict liability limit. The complaint seeks a judgment of no less than $5 million, accusing the airline and its employees of gross negligence.
Contact Airplane Accident Attorneys in San Francisco
As there are many more passengers who were injured during Flight 214, we can expect in the days to come that many of them will be seeking to recover for the injuries or wrongful deaths sustained as a result of the flight crash. The crash victims have valuable claims which, pressed by an experienced Airplane Accident attorney, could result in millions dollars of liability for the airline. The airplane accident lawyers at Callaway and Wolf has are experienced in aircraft injuries, including those involving deaths.
Call 415-541-0300 now to speak with one of our San Francisco injury attorneys.
Boone Callaway is a personal injury & medical malpractice lawyer in San Francisco who has been working with clients in the Bay Area for over 25 years. Mr. Callaway is one of only a few personal injury litigators in San Francisco who is a Super Lawyer, AV Rated and is also a member of ABOTA – American Board of Trial Advocates.
