Airplane accident lawyers at Pintas & Mullins Law Firm report on a recent crash at Santa Monica Airport which left no survivors, though authorities cannot yet confirm how many people were onboard. The business jet ran off the runway after landing in Santa Monica, causing a hangar to collapse and igniting a fire.
Witnesses told CNN that the jet’s tires appeared to blow out during an otherwise normal landing. The plane, a twin-engine Cessna Citation, departed from an airport in Hailey, Idaho and had the potential to carry up to nine people. The Captain of the Santa Monica Fire Department stated that the crash was unsurvivable.
First-responders were not able to enter the hanger immediately after the crash because it was too unstable. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were not able to reach the plane until the day after crash for the same reason. Federal NTSB agents will be inspecting the plane for indications into what caused the crash.
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When Santa Monica Firefighters first arrived the entire hanger was collapsed and inflamed. A large crane was brought in to lift the hanger off the aircraft and potentially recover bodies. The Cessna Citation business jet is licensed to an address in Malibu, California. It is believed it was being piloted by the CEO of Morley Construction, whose son may have also been aboard the jet at the time.
This is the second crash connected with the Santa Monica Airport in as many years; in August 2012 a pilot crashed about three miles from the small airport, near Westwood and Olympic Boulevards. The single-engine jet pilot was flying charitable flights for patients with emergency medical needs through a service known as Angel Flight.
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The pilot, 70-year-old Sean McMillan, had been involved with Angel Flight for about two decades before the crash that ended his life. McMillan declared an emergency to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) after departing from Santa Monica, ultimately crashing into a residential neighborhood in West Los Angeles. Fortunately, no one on the ground was injured. The FAA confirmed that McMillan was coming back to land in Santa Monica after declaring the emergency. That plane was also manufactured by Cessna, though it was much older (1978) and smaller.
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A small plane crash in the Chicagoland area recently took the lives of a husband and wife. The couple crashed into a commercial parking lot in Bolingbrook, Illinois while attempting a descent into the suburb’s Clow International Airport. The plane clipped several trees on its way down, striking a light pole and three cars in a Chase Bank parking lot before catching fire. Fortunately, no one on the ground was injured.
Many small plane crashes do take the lives of unsuspecting pedestrians, however. In August 2013, four people were killed when a turboprop plane crashed into an East Haven, Connecticut neighborhood. Among those killed were two children who were playing inside a house the plane hit. The other two killed were the pilot and passenger.
The pilot did not send out any emergency or distress signals before descending into the East Haven neighborhood, though federal investigators affirm that the crash was caused by unexpected transmission failure. The plane crashed into the homes nose-down and inverted, at a 60- to 70-degree angle. Fire consumed both homes, one impacted with the left wing, the other with the right.
Airplane accident attorneys at Pintas & Mullins Law Firm have extensive experience in aviation law and its complexities. These types of lawsuits are subjected to an array of treaties and regulations and are very specialized, which can often leave victims confused and uncertain of their legal options. Contacting a lawyer with specific experience in this field can provide you with the answers and help you need to obtain maximum compensation for your injuries and property damage.
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