Kentucky

Judge Forester has ruled that the families in the Comair Bluegrass Airport jet crash case can seek punitive damages from the airline.

Here is the order from June 6, 2008.

Here is the Courier Journal story.  Click on heading for entire story.

Comair victims' families can seek punitive damages

In a victory for the plaintiffs, a federal judge has ruled that the families of those killed aboard Comair Flight 5191 may seek punitive damages in a trial set for Aug. 4. In an order made public today, U.S. District Judge Karl Forester said there was enough evidence to allow a jury to decide if the airline's management was responsible for the Aug. 27, 2006, crash that killed 49 people at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport. David Royce, liaison counsel for the plaintiffs, said the ruling "provides an opportunity for the community to send a message about the conduct in this case." A spokeswoman for Comair, which vigorously opposed the ruling, did not respond to calls and pages. Comair admitted that its pilots made mistakes in taking off from the wrong runway, but said it should not be subject to punitive damages because it did not "authorize or ratify" their conduct. But Forester said the plaintiffs had produced sufficient evidence that Comair's training and policies were negligent to allow a jury to consider such damages. The National Transportation Safety Board ruled that pilot error was the principal cause of the crash, which occurred seconds after the Comair jet tried to take off from the wrong runway, one too short for jetliners.