Commercial Airlines, U.S. and Foreign

Major Airlines

Our firm has represented passengers, pilots and other crew, and persons injured or killed on the ground in litigation against airlines, manufacturers, maintenance contractors, airports, air traffic control and government entities.

Many larger commercial airlines own or have code-share agreements with one or more regional operations which allows a smaller regional airline to use the marketing logo and name of the larger commercial airline in return for a fee. Similar agreements can be found between domestic and foreign carriers for international travel.

Regional Airlines

We have litigated many cases concerning regional airlines with the goal to help our clients recover for their injuries and make parent carriers more responsible for their regional operations by:

• furthering the safety of our regional airlines
• exploring the true safety of small, foreign built aircraft
• safeguarding the pilots and crew to enable safer flights for their passengers

Despite flying under the major airlines' names, paint, and logos, the regional carriers often fly small, foreign built jets and pay employees and contractors substantially less than the major carriers. Major airlines often seem to treat their regional airlines as distant second class operations. Unfortunately, unsuspecting passengers may not understand that purchasing an airline ticket with a major carrier’s name does not mean they will receive the same level of safety on a regional airline.

Reviewing and Researching a Plane Crash 

Commercial airline crashes are almost always multifaceted and devastating events, but in many cases, they are preventable. Typically, commercial airline crashes occur due to a combination of factors such as faulty aircraft equipment, negligent maintenance, pilot or crew error, air traffic control errors, security breaches, and/or a failure to check weather conditions.

When an air tragedy occurs, Motley Rice’s aviation team does not merely rely on the National Transportation Safety Board or the Federal Aviation Administration investigations of a domestic crash, nor do we rely solely on the aviation investigative agency at the location of an international crash. In addition to reviewing available government investigations, we also conduct our own extensive research of the crash for the litigation process. If a crash happens in a foreign country, the Motley Rice aviation team is experienced in international litigation the challenges of battling the well-funded legal teams of multi-billion dollar corporations.

Contact Us