NEW YORK (AP) — A jury has awarded $116 million to the family of one of five people killed in a no-door helicopter that crashed and sank in a New York City river, 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.
It was, family lawyer Gary C. Robb said Friday, “a death trap.”
“They just completely misled the public about the ability to get out in an emergency” from the harnesses, which were store-bought fall-protection gear envisioned for construction workers, not aviation use, he said.
Messages seeking comment were sent Friday to lawyers for the companies that jurors blamed for his death.
The jury decided 42% of the fault lay with FlyNYON, which arranged the flight, and 38% with Liberty Helicopters, which owned the helicopter and supplied the pilot. Jurors assigned 20% of the liability to Dart Aerospace, which made a flotation device that malfunctioned in the crash.
The chopper plunged into the East River after a passenger tether got caught on a floor-mounted fuel shutoff switch and stopped the engine, federal investigators found. The aircraft started sinking within seconds.
The pilot, who was wearing a seatbelt, was able to free himself and survived. But the five passengers struggled in vain to free themselves from their harnesses, the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation found.
All five died. They 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 NTSB largely blamed FlyNYON, saying it installed hard-to-escape harnesses and exploited a regulatory loophole to avoid having to meet 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 such terms as “air tour” or “sightseeing" so the company could maintain a certification with less stringent safety standards, investigators said. The company got the certification via an exemption meant for such activities as newsgathering, commercial photography and film shoots.
In submissions to the NTSB, FlyNYON faulted the helicopter's design and the flotation system, which failed to keep the aircraft upright. DART Aerospace, in turn, suggested the pilot hadn't used the system properly. The pilot told the NTSB that the passengers had a pre-flight safety briefing and were told how to cut themselves out of the restraint harnesses.
After the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded doors-off flights with tight seat restraints. The flights later resumed with requirements for restraints that can be released with just a single action.
Robb said Cadigan's parents sued in hopes of stopping the no-doors 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-long trial in Manhattan.
“He didn’t see the final journey to justice,” Robb said, “but he knew it was coming.”
FILE - This image from undated video provided by WFAA in Dallas in March 2018, shows Trevor Cadigan, a former WFAA intern and son of WFAA production manager Jerry Cadigan. (WFAA via AP, File)
FILE - A helicopter is hoisted by crane from the East River onto a barge in New York on Monday, March 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in the fighting in Russia's Kursk region and facing logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks, Ukraine’s military intelligence said Thursday.
The intelligence agency, known under its acronym GUR, said Ukrainian strikes near Novoivanovka inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean units. It said North Korean troops also faced supply issues and even shortages of drinking water.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that 3,000 North Korean troops have been killed and wounded in the fighting in the Kursk region. It marked the first significant estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties several weeks after Kyiv announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost 3-year war.
The casualty disclosure came as the Biden administration was pressing to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump takes over in January.
Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, dealing a significant blow to Russia's prestige and forcing it to deploy some of its troops from eastern Ukraine, where they were pressing a slow-moving offensive.
The Russian army has been able to reclaim some territory in the Kursk region from Ukrainian forces, but has failed to fully dislodge them.
At the same time, Russia has sought to break Ukraine's resistance with waves of strikes with cruise missiles and drones against Ukraine's power grid and other infrastructure.
The latest attack on Christmas morning involved 78 missiles and 106 drones, striking power facilities, Ukraine’s air force said. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones and jammed 52 other drones.
On Thursday, Russia attacked Ukraine with 31 exploding drones. Twenty were shot down and another 11 didn’t reach their target due to jamming, the Ukrainian air force said.
As part of the daily barrage, Russian forces also struck a central market in Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region with a drone, wounding eight people, according to local authorities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Thursday that Russia could again hit Ukraine with the new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile that was first used in a Nov. 21 strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
Speaking to reporters, Putin said Russia has just a few Oreshnik missiles, but added that it wouldn't hesitate to use them on Ukraine.
“We aren't in a rush to use them, because those are powerful weapons intended for certain tasks,” he said. “But we wouldn't exclude their use today or tomorrow if necessary.”
Putin said Russia has launched serial production of the new weapon and reaffirmed a plan to deploy some of Oreshnik missiles to Russia's neighbor and ally Belarus. Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko told reporters Thursday that his country could host 10 or more.
Ukraine struck back with drone strikes of its own. Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications said the military struck a plant in Kamensk-Shakhtynsky in Russia’s southern Rostov region that produces propellant for ballistic missiles.
“This strike is part of a comprehensive campaign to weaken the capabilities of the Russian armed forces to carry out terrorist attacks against Ukrainian civilians,” it said in a statement.
A Ukrainian AS-90 self-propelled artillery vehicle fires towards Russian positions at the frontline on Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A medic treats an injured Ukrainian serviceman at Medical Service "Ulf" of the 108th Separate Battalion "Da Vinci Wolves" on Pokrovsk direction, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
An injured Ukrainian serviceman walks out of an ambulance at Medical Service "Ulf" of the 108th Separate Battalion "Da Vinci Wolves" on Pokrovsk direction, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Injured Ukrainian servicemen arrive from the battlefield at Medical Service "Ulf" of the 108th Separate Battalion "Da Vinci Wolves" on Pokrovsk direction, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Medics haul an injured Ukrainian serviceman on a stretcher from an ambulance at Medical Service "Ulf" of the 108th Separate Battalion "Da Vinci Wolves" on Pokrovsk direction, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A medic treats an injured Ukrainian serviceman at Medical Service "Ulf" of the 108th Separate Battalion "Da Vinci Wolves" on Pokrovsk direction, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A medic checks the ear of an injured Ukrainian serviceman at Medical Service "Ulf" of the 108th Separate Battalion "Da Vinci Wolves" on Pokrovsk direction, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A medic helps an injured Ukrainian serviceman walk out of an ambulance at Medical Service "Ulf" of the 108th Separate Battalion "Da Vinci Wolves" on Pokrovsk direction, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
An injured Ukrainian serviceman takes off his shirt after arriving from the battlefield at Medical Service "Ulf" of the 108th Separate Battalion "Da Vinci Wolves" on Pokrovsk direction, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A medic treats an injured Ukrainian serviceman at Medical Service "Ulf" of the 108th Separate Battalion "Da Vinci Wolves" on Pokrovsk direction, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
