Personal Injury Law

Tragic Aviation Accident Kills all 14 Aboard still Under Investigation

According to a MSNBC report, the turboprop plane that crashed in a cemetery in Butte, Montana killing all 14 passengers on Sunday, March 22, 2009 was made to hold only ten people. At first, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said they thought the plane could hold eleven people. The plane left Oroville, CA and was heading towards Bozeman, MO when it changed course to Butte without the pilot indicating any problematic issues to air traffic controllers. Acting chairman of the NTSB, Mark Rosenker, said that investigators want to find out if the plane was over its weight restrictions; however, people should not jump to conclusions that overloading was the cause of Sunday?s crash.

Seven of the fourteen victims of this fatal plane accident were children under the age of ten. Passengers were on their way to a high-class Yellowstone Club for a family skiing holiday.

?We were going on a vacation with all the grandkids,? said Irving M. ?Bud? Feldkamp, who lost two daughters and their families in the accident. ?They were all excited about skiing.? According to the article, Feldkamp leased the airplane that crashed. He said he, his wife and another daughter had driven to Montana for the trip.

Our hearts and deepest sympathies go out to the family and friends of those who died in this catastrophic aviation accident. It is such an unimaginable experience for anyone to have to endure the death of a loved one, whether because of a plane accident caused by the negligence of an airline, mechanical failure, or pilot error.

Full post as published by New York Injury Talk Blog on May 04, 2009 (boomark / email).