Kentucky Helicopter Crash Lawyers

Common Causes of Helicopter Crashes

Helicopter crashes often involve a chain of preventable failures — mechanical, maintenance-related, operational, or design-based. Common causes we investigate include:

• Loss of main rotor control, including failures in rotor head, blades, pitch linkages, or related systems.
• Loss of tail rotor function, including yaw-control failures and drivetrain issues.
• Engine failure or power loss, including fuel-system and mechanical causes.
• Maintenance and inspection failures, including missed defect indicators, improper repairs, or installation errors.
• Avionics or instrument failures that degrade situational awareness in low visibility or high workload conditions.
• Wire strikes and obstacle collisions, often tied to route planning, mission demands, and hazard mitigation failures.
• Operational and decision-making failures, including dispatch pressure, inadequate risk management, and training gaps.

Post-Crash Fire and Crashworthiness

In many catastrophic helicopter cases, the most troubling facts are these: occupants survive the impact, then suffer fatal or life-altering burns because a fire erupts after the crash. Those cases often turn on crashworthiness and whether the helicopter’s fuel system and surrounding design reasonably protected occupants in a survivable impact sequence.

Key questions often include:

• Was the fuel system vulnerable to rupture in foreseeable crash dynamics?
• Were safer designs or available retrofits rejected or delayed?
• Did maintenance practices increase fuel-fed fire risk?
• Would the outcome have been dramatically different without a fuel-fed fire?

We Are the Country's Leading Law Firm on Helicopter Crash Resistant Fuel Systems (CRFS)

Our law firm has been on the leading edge of advocating for Crash Resistant Fuel Systems (CRFS) in helicopters for over 20 years (read about Mr. Robb’s work on CRFS in the Wall Street Journal). This technology has been available since the 1960s, but the helicopter industry has resisted utilizing it. As a result, even a routine hard landing can result in a devastating and disabling post-crash fire. We have handled many of these cases, including the two highest results in U.S. history, a $100 million cash settlement in 2024 in Nevada for the wrongful death of Jonathan Udall from post crash burn injuries during a Grand Canyon tour, a $100 million cash settlement in 2018 in Colorado for the 90% burn injuries to David Repsher in a 2015 helicopter crash, and one of the very first substantial settlements in 2001, $38 million for Chana Daskal's burn injuries sustained in a Grand Canyon helicopter crash.

On December 22, 2023, just prior to the scheduled Udall trial, Airbus for the first time offered its CRFS retrofits free of charge, to U.S. customers only. Mr. Robb has questioned Airbus’s action as too little too late.

Who May Be Liable in a Kentucky Helicopter Crash

Depending on the evidence, responsible parties may include:

• The helicopter operator or tour company
• The pilot
• Maintenance providers and inspection contractors
• The helicopter manufacturer
• Component suppliers (fuel system, rotor system, avionics, restraints)
• Ownership entities or parent companies that control safety policies and budgets
• Other third parties (fueling errors, negligent ground support, or hazardous conditions)

Damages and Losses in Helicopter Crash Cases

Helicopter crashes frequently involve catastrophic injury or wrongful death. Depending on the facts, damages may include:

• Economic damages such as medical expenses, rehabilitation, future care needs, lost wages, and diminished earning capacity.
• Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, pre-impact terror, emotional distress, disability, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life.
• Wrongful death damages such as funeral and burial expenses, loss of financial support, and the losses suffered by surviving family members.