Boaz v. Midwest ATC, Vitatoe Aviation, LLC, and Aircraft Inspection & Repair, LLC

On June 24, 2018, a pilot was flying a Cessna P210N, registration N3896P, from Baytown, Texas to Detroit, Michigan with his wife and seventeen-year-old son to see his daughter play in a volleyball tournament. The pilot made his approach into the Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport in Detroit (DET) just before 8 pm local time. Midwest ATC provided air traffic control services at the airport under contract with the FAA. The pilot was cleared to land by an employee of Midwest ATC, but as he prepared to land, the aircraft’s landing gear malfunctioned and would not fully extend. After unsuccessfully trying to troubleshoot the issue, the pilot then ran out of fuel.  Instead of clearing the pilot to land on any runway and immediately contacting emergency services, the air traffic controller cleared the pilot to land on a runway on the opposite side of the airport.
Tragically, the pilot was unable to reach that runway and crash landed in a vacant residential lot just outside the airport property. The pilot and his wife died on impact. The pilot’s son survived the crash, but it took several minutes for emergency personnel to arrive, and he only narrowly escaped the aircraft as flames engulfed the cockpit. The pilot’s son spent several weeks in the hospital recovering from severe burns suffered in the crash, which left permanent scars. Slack Davis Sanger represented the son in a suit against the air traffic controller and two maintenance companies who had worked on the aircraft prior to the fatal flight.

Mike Slack has been practicing law for over 36 years and has litigated hundreds of lawsuits. His experience as a licensed pilot and former NASA aerospace engineer gives him unique insight into aviation accident lawsuits.

Ladd Sanger is an attorney and a licensed pilot who focuses on aviation accidents, including product liability, product litigation, and representing clients who have been injured as a result of aviation accidents. His experience as a pilot helps him understand the technical aspects of aviation crashes.

Derek Quick is a Senior Attorney working across all of the firm’s practice areas, with an emphasis on aviation crash cases. His calm nature and tenacious spirit has him working hard to deliver justice to all of his clients.

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