Aviation

Carlton Fields’ aviation practice is comprised of seasoned trial attorneys and litigators with a tremendous depth of experience representing the aviation industry. That experience includes defending carriers, manufacturers, and their insurers in major commercial airline disasters as well as the more routine claims for injury and property damage. Carlton Fields represents domestic and international air carriers and other members of the aviation industry including ground handling facilities, catering services, an international aviation trade organization as well as pilots and mechanics. 

Aviation attorneys have trial experience in death, injury and property damage claims arising from major air disasters.  Shareholder Emmet J. Schwartzman has over 25 years of aviation litigation experience. His experience began with defending the airline and its insurer in the 1982 crash of a Pan Am Boeing 727 in Kenner, Louisiana, which, at the time, was the nation’s second worst air disaster. Another member of the Aviation Practice Group is a commercial pilot with instrument and seaplane ratings.

Some examples of the breadth and sophistication of Carlton Fields’ aviation practice are:

• Defended more than 125 passenger claims against Bolivian air carrier in federal court arising from a 2008 air crash of a Boeing 727 on approach to Trinidad, Bolivia
• Defended aircraft engine manufacturers in litigation involving the Death on the High Seas Act where engine design defects were alleged cause of fatal crash in Greenland.
• Defended aircraft engine manufacturer in litigation involving alleged failure of oil delivery system resulting in fatal crash in Guatemala.
• Commenced litigation against manufacturer of defective bearings which were incorporated into client's aircraft engine and resulted in engine recall.
• Defended aircraft engine manufacturer in litigation involving an engine that was manufactured and delivered to the first purchaser in 1964. Defense based on grounds that claims were barred by both Florida’s statute of repose and the General Aviation Revitalization Act.
• Defended air carrier in federal multidistrict litigation arising from crash of an American Airlines Boeing 757 near Cali, Colombia in 1995
• Defended manufacturer in products liability claims brought in mass tort litigation arising from 1996 crash of a ValuJet DC-9 in the Florida Everglades
• Defended air carrier in federal multidistrict litigation arising from severe turbulence incident near the Bahamas in 1996 resulting in one catastrophic injury
• Won appeal after oral argument in the Eleventh Circuit declaring Jamaica to be a High Contracting Party to the Warsaw Convention
• Won appeal after oral argument in a case of first impression in the Eleventh Circuit defining “embarkation” under the Warsaw Convention
• Obtained summary judgment in favor of airline in federal suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act alleging that airline’s web site was not accessible to vision-impaired users
• Obtained defense verdict in wrongful death jury trial arising from a major air disaster
• Obtained a dismissal with prejudice in an airport ramp accident where plaintiff committed perjury and fraud on the court
• FAA enforcement actions, including the defense of ATP and commercial-rated pilot
• Successfully defended an A & P mechanic in a federal criminal prosecution in which the U.S. District Court granted a motion to suppress evidence
• Appearances before the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation
• Defended air carriers in a wide variety of personal injury claims including severe turbulence, premises liability claims, ramp accidents, food poisoning, denied boarding, passenger ejectment, claims for “delay” under the Warsaw Convention, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, assault and battery, emergency evacuations, overhead bin accidents, in-flight heart attacks and illnesses, hot beverage spills, lost/damaged checked and carry-on baggage and claims governed by the Warsaw Convention and IATA Intercarrier Agreements
• Frequent litigation of choice of law issues in air carrier liability cases
• Won appeal in death case from a major air disaster where state appellate court ruled plaintiff's “de facto marital union” to a deceased flight attendant under foreign law was not a common law marriage and plaintiff therefore had no claim for death of flight attendant
• Nationwide representation of air carriers in Florida, Oklahoma, Maryland, U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington state
• Speaking engagements and in-house seminars on the Warsaw Convention, IATA Intercarrier Agreements, Montreal Convention of 1999, passenger ejectment and denied boarding, multidistrict litigation for aviation accidents and cooperation agreements between airlines