The family of a victim of a fatal 2018 East River helicopter crash that left five passengers dead is receiving a massive payout from the city.
A jury has awarded $116 million to the family of one of the five people who died on the doorless plane that crashed and sank, leaving passengers trapped in their safety harnesses.
The verdict came Thursday in the lawsuit over the death of Trevor Cadigan, who was 26 when he took the doomed flight in March 2018.
Even though one executive at the company operating the helicopters surprisingly blamed the victims, it was, family attorney Gary C. Robb said Friday, “a death trap.”
“They just completely misled the public about the ability to get out in an emergency,” because of the harnesses, which were store-bought fall protection equipment intended for construction workers, not aviation use, he said.
The family of Trevor Cadigan, a victim of the fatal 2018 East River helicopter crash that left five passengers dead, is receiving a massive payout from the city.
A jury has awarded $116 million to the family of one of the five people who died on the doorless plane that crashed and sank, leaving passengers trapped in their safety harnesses.
Messages seeking comment were sent Friday to attorneys for the companies that jurors blamed for her death.
The jury found that 42 percent of the blame lay with FlyNYON, which organized the flight, and 38 percent with Liberty Helicopters, which owned the helicopter and provided the pilot.
Jurors placed 20 percent of the blame on Dart Aerospace, which made a flotation device that malfunctioned in the crash.
The helicopter plunged into the East River after a passenger’s tether became entangled in a fuel shutoff switch installed on the floor and stalled the engine, federal investigators found. The plane began sinking within seconds.
The pilot, who was wearing his seat belt, managed to free himself and survived.
But all five passengers tried in vain to free themselves from their harnesses, the National Transportation Safety Board investigation found.
The five who died were Cadigan, Brian McDaniel, 26, Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29, Tristan Hill, 29, and Daniel Thompson, 34.
Cadigan, a journalist, had recently moved to New York from Dallas and was enjoying a visit from his childhood friend McDaniel, a Dallas firefighter.
The verdict came Thursday in the lawsuit over the death of Trevor Cadigan, who was 26 when he took the crashed flight in March 2018.
The NTSB largely blamed FlyNYON, saying it installed hard-to-escape harnesses and exploited a regulatory loophole to avoid having to comply with safety requirements that would apply to tourist flights.
FlyNYON promoted “sneaker selfies” — images of passengers’ feet dangling over lower Manhattan — but told employees to avoid using terms like “aerial tour” or “sightseeing” so the company could maintain a certification with less stringent safety standards, investigators said.
The company obtained the certification through an exemption intended for activities such as news gathering, commercial photography and film shoots.
In its filings with the NTSB, FlyNYON criticized the helicopter’s design and flotation system, which failed to keep the aircraft upright.
DART Aerospace, in turn, suggested that the pilot had not used the system correctly.
The pilot told the NTSB that passengers received a safety briefing before the flight and were told how to free themselves from restraints.
After the accident, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded Flights with doors open and seat restraints tight. Flights later resumed with restraint requirements that can be released with a single action.
Robb said Cadigan’s parents filed a lawsuit in hopes of stopping gateless flights.
His father, Dallas broadcast journalist Jerry Cadigan, died in July in St. Louis while visiting relatives during a break in the roughly three-month trial in Manhattan.
“He didn’t see the final journey toward justice,” Robb said, “but he knew it was coming.”
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