Except for the fact that the passengers were all skydivers, skydiving had
nothing to do with the accident. An unfortunate title for the thread.

Bob Gardner

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
...
C J Campbell wrote:
The parents of Bryan Jones, a 34 year old Microsoft engineer who was one
of nine skydivers killed in the crash of a Cessna Caravan, are suing
Cessna. The Caravan was returning from Star, Idaho, to Shelton,
Washington. The parents are alleging that the Cessna Caravan was
defective and should not have been flying in icy weather. The airplane is
not certified for flight into known ice, although the plane in question
did have boots.

So, Cessna is being blamed because a pilot may have operated the plane in
direct contradiction to the aircraft flight manual and warnings in
Cessna's operating instructions.

If this is true, you are viewing what has become one of the prime reasons
associated with the virtual end of General Aviation as at least I knew it
for the first 25 years I was involved in aviation.
It's the trial lawyers. They will go after anything and everything with
deep pockets involved in an accident. They operate in conditions like
these on the premise that REGARDLESS of the appropriate and inappropriate
actions of a pilot, if one screw was out of place on the aircraft itself,
the manufacturer can be litigated for financial gain.
In many cases, it is my understanding that manufacturers simply "settle"
the suits rather than defend them based upon specific lawyers reputations
for their ability to sway juries.
It's nothing but sheer extortion in the majority of the cases.

A truly unfortunate aside to this "practice" is that the phony litigations
are so frequent and so costly, there is a very good chance that the
legitimate cases where there actually is just cause for a lawsuit are
often looked at in the same jaundiced eye by the public as the phony cases
and true justice can suffer.
The lawyers can be "congratulated" for literally destroying not only GA,
but for the most part, the publics' faith and dependence in a true and
honest justice system.

--
Dudley Henriques