Minnesota jury awards $16M+ in fatal crash of Cirrus plane

A jury in northern Minnesota has awarded more than $16 million to the families of two Grand Rapids men who died in a plane crash near Hill City in 2003.

[Get Real]

This lawsuit give frivolous lawsuits a bad name.

[Fred]

Seems to me there should be a limit on the death of a person.

Like $1,000,000.

[DumbDumbs]

Ahh the dumbing down of society. Direct from the NTSB crash report:

Probably Cause was "Spatial disorientation experienced by the pilot, due to a lack of visual references, and a failure to maintain altitude".- Read in plain english: Flew the plane into the ground.

Plane was fine: Pilot flew into the ground, yet both the mfgr of the plane and the instructor were found negligent in keeping the idiot pilot from flying into the ground!

I guess if you hit a curb or tree with your car, you should sue the mfgr of the car and the city that put in the curb/trees, as well as the people who gave you your drivers license.

And people wonder why the country is going broke. We are a society quickly becoming bankrupt of common sense or responsibility. It's not MY fault!!!!

[Geno]

This should be appealed to a higher court and a different location.

[KCMN]

Pathetic. Juries like to award ridiculous awards whenever there is a bad outcome, and take it from the deepest pockets, regardless of who is truly "at fault." I hope it gets appealed to a higher court and overturned.

[wbigs]

DumbDumbs wrote:

Ahh the dumbing down of society. Direct from the NTSB crash report:
Probably Cause was "Spatial disorientation experienced by the pilot, due to a lack of visual references, and a failure to maintain altitude".- Read in plain english: Flew the plane into the ground.
Plane was fine: Pilot flew into the ground, yet both the mfgr of the plane and the instructor were found negligent in keeping the idiot pilot from flying into the ground!
I guess if you hit a curb or tree with your car, you should sue the mfgr of the car and the city that put in the curb/trees, as well as the people who gave you your drivers license.
And people wonder why the country is going broke. We are a society quickly becoming bankrupt of common sense or responsibility. It's not MY fault!!!!

Unfortunately, the NTSB will not go to court to share their findings so all the lawyers have to do is talk fancy to the jury and have the victims families shed a few tears on the stand and...kaching.

[Mr Secant]

The comments on this post are incredibly naive and
unfortunately becoming the norm. I suspect that most of the commentators have never sat in a jury and if summoned for duty, are the first to make excuses to be dismissed. Sitting on a jury and coming to a conclusion with others is not an easy task and it is further complicated by the facts presented and the instructions given by the court, setting the parameters to conclude the results. To sit outside that arena and try to second guess the process is infantile and stupid.
In hope that right wing politics change our laws to disable punishment and compensation for injury through neglect, is setting up a scenario that would not be much different then the uncivilized judicial systems you would find in China or Indonesia.
The jury was right in their decision regardless of the arm chair quarter backing!

[Captain Quint]

Mr Secant wrote:

The comments on this post are incredibly naive and
unfortunately becoming the norm. I suspect that most of the commentators have never sat in a jury and if summoned for duty, are the first to make excuses to be dismissed. Sitting on a jury and coming to a conclusion with others is not an easy task and it is further complicated by the facts presented and the instructions given by the court, setting the parameters to conclude the results. To sit outside that arena and try to second guess the process is infantile and stupid.
In hope that right wing politics change our laws to disable punishment and compensation for injury through neglect, is setting up a scenario that would not be much different then the uncivilized judicial systems you would find in China or Indonesia.
The jury was right in their decision regardless of the arm chair quarter backing!

So I guess you were one of the idiots on this jury who awarded millions to some moron who wanted to be Chuck Yeager?

[Mike]

So, who did the jury decide was really going to pay for all of this? Cirrus has insurance, UND has insurance, and the rest will be picked up by students, and the pilot has insurance. So, when you think you're really punishing people for 2 deaths, you punish all of us and make a law firm rich that gets a third. I never understand juries...money doesn't bring back people. It makes lawyers rich and raises prices for all of us. A million or two I can see, sixteen million, c'mon, get real here.

[Mike]

Mr Secant wrote:

The comments on this post are incredibly naive and
unfortunately becoming the norm. I suspect that most of the commentators have never sat in a jury and if summoned for duty, are the first to make excuses to be dismissed. Sitting on a jury and coming to a conclusion with others is not an easy task and it is further complicated by the facts presented and the instructions given by the court, setting the parameters to conclude the results. To sit outside that arena and try to second guess the process is infantile and stupid.
In hope that right wing politics change our laws to disable punishment and compensation for injury through neglect, is setting up a scenario that would not be much different then the uncivilized judicial systems you would find in China or Indonesia.
The jury was right in their decision regardless of the arm chair quarter backing!

So pal, you think it's okay for lawyers to keep suing their way thru life and take a bunch out of everybody's pockets? You must be the lobbyist who keeps stopping congress from putting a limit on lawsuits.

[Sense]

What is unbelievable is the line up of ignoramus’s that take a 5 sentence story and wildly add their blind opinion. I knew Jim Kosak, and my wife's boss was supposed to be on that plane which was in flight to watch their kids play a hockey game. Mr. Prokop had very limited experience flying the plane, and evidently was not given all the instruction he needed to do so. They have checklists for the training, and they were not all checked off.
Mr. Prokop, and to a lesser extent, Jim Kosak were successful in their fields, and could have earned that kind of money over their working career. Mr. Prokop was able to buy the plane, which would indicate his business success.
What also is unbelievable is that the lawyers collect 40% of the judgment, although it may be years before the appeal process is finalized.

[Sense]

To continue, the two hockey playing boys continued their hockey careers through high school, both playing for the varsity Grand Rapids Thunderhawks and graduating a couple of years ago.

[Sense]

The Cirrus plane was worth about 1/2 million, in case anyone was wondering.

[Fred]

Having said this before I'll say it again.

1) Work hard

2) Make lots of money

3) Buy a small airplane

4) Crash and die in the small plane

5) Next guy/gal: Start over at #1

[factometer]

A jury should not have been involved. This is a simple case of a family trying to get rich because their idiot broke all the rules, and flew without being licensed in IFR conditions. Like all liberals, this idiot's family blames someone else, and makes someone else PAY for their poor choices.

Mr Secant wrote:

The comments on this post are incredibly naive and
unfortunately becoming the norm. I suspect that most of the commentators have never sat in a jury and if summoned for duty, are the first to make excuses to be dismissed. Sitting on a jury and coming to a conclusion with others is not an easy task and it is further complicated by the facts presented and the instructions given by the court, setting the parameters to conclude the results. To sit outside that arena and try to second guess the process is infantile and stupid.
In hope that right wing politics change our laws to disable punishment and compensation for injury through neglect, is setting up a scenario that would not be much different then the uncivilized judicial systems you would find in China or Indonesia.
The jury was right in their decision regardless of the arm chair quarter backing!

[kim miller]

the jurors, judge and plaintiff's attorneys are blatent golddiggers. Minnesota should be ashamed for allowing this case to even make it to court. This is abuse of the legal system, and ultimately taxpayers, myself included. The pilot is negligent, and yet the family WINs millions? This pilot was NOT licensed to fly IFR. Therefore, he was basically flying illegally. This is not the fault of Cirrus. He was not trained by personal choice. It was his decision. He was the idiot, he died, and his family should not gain from it. The passenger's family should sue the pilot's family. Cirrus should not be involved. SHAME on ALL of YOU.

[Jim Crone]

This is real simple people. It only involves a very little bit of something which seems conspicuously absent in our "changed" society today. That would be - COMMON SENSE.

The law states that you CANNOT pilot an aircraft into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)without possessing an INSTRUMENT RATING on your pilot's certificate AND being CURRENT. Subject pilot DID NOT possess an Instrument Rating. CASE DISMISSED. The BUM broke the law. He didn't love his family as much as he loved his ego.

The training that he received as a Private Pilot was more than adequate had he remained in VISUAL FLIGHT CONDITIONS as he is REQUIRED BY LAW. The fact that he took SOME lessons to acquire an instrument rating is irrelevant. The fact remains that he DID NOT ever acquire the instrument rating. Either a dreamer or a drop out. He didn't make the grade, couldn't cut the muster. He was a failure and went down in flames. Natural selection wins out even over liberal judges and ambulance chasing lawyers or PA's or PS's or BS's or whatever euphamisms they go by these days.

The mindless lemmings on the jury are so easily swayed by a puffing storyteller that they completely miss the actual facts and once again our flawed legal system is further emasculated. To the earlier posters like "Mr. Secant"; you are apparently one of the members of our society, like the jury in question, who has the innate inability to reason clearly. You Mr. Secant simply don't know what you're talking about.

I have way more experience in aircraft and the courtroom than I care to brag or lament about in this space. My point is simply that I can see clearly. My eyes are wide open. The courtroom is a place to tell lies and in this courtroom, lies were told. All because some greedy people want to "win the lottery". It is time for a revolution. These creeps are destroying what is left of our country.

[Mike]

the fact that one writer said they "projected" possible lifetime earnings in handing out the generous cash settlement is absurd. No one can accurately predict what a person will make in their lifetime. In just the last year we've seen some very well-to-do people go in the tank because of the economy/bad decisions. A cap on jury awards needs to become law. Sorry lawyers, once again you're putting us all behind the eight ball because of basic greed. It affects everything that happens economically in this country and everything you pay for in a day. If you wound back the clock only 25 years ago, nobody would have believed that this was going to happen. That's because just plain bad luck and personal responsiblility were factored into why you died, not if there was anybody associated with the accident had some money. The pilot is reason for deaths here, but obviously he doesn't have money, so lawyers have to blame someone who has some.