Pompano Beach Airplane Accident Lawyer

Aviation claims run almost entirely on federal law, and two of the rules that matter most can end a case before anyone looks at what caused the crash. One sets a deadline that starts running the day an aircraft is delivered. The other makes the official accident report inadmissible. Jacobson Injury Firm represents people injured in aviation accidents across Broward County.

Attorney Adam Jacobson handles every case personally. Contact us today for a free consultation, and see our broader Pompano Beach personal injury practice for related claims.

The Eighteen-Year Rule That Bars Most Manufacturer Claims

The General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994 imposes an eighteen-year statute of repose on claims against manufacturers of general aviation aircraft and their components. It applies to aircraft with fewer than 20 passenger seats not operating in scheduled service, which covers nearly everything flying out of a local airfield.

The clock starts when the aircraft or part is first delivered to its initial purchaser, not when anyone is hurt. That means a claim against a manufacturer can be barred before the accident ever happens, and it applies even where manufacturer negligence contributed to the crash. Since a large share of the general aviation fleet is well over eighteen years old, the provision defeats manufacturer claims routinely.

It is not absolute, and the exceptions are where these cases are made.

• Knowing misrepresentation or concealment. Where a manufacturer knowingly withheld or misstated information required by the FAA that was material and causally related to the harm, the repose period does not apply. Courts have allowed claims to proceed on exactly this basis, including where a manufacturer failed in its duty to report component failures.
• A replacement part restarts its own clock. Where a new component was installed within the eighteen years and that component caused the accident, the period runs from the replacement rather than from original delivery. Establishing the maintenance history is therefore central.
• Claims by people not aboard the aircraft fall outside the repose entirely, as do certain written warranty claims.

None of this affects claims against pilots, operators, flight schools, maintenance facilities, charter companies, or fuel providers. Those proceed on ordinary negligence principles and are frequently the stronger route in any event.

The NTSB Report You Cannot Use

The National Transportation Safety Board investigates civil aviation accidents and publishes findings including a probable cause determination. Families read that report and assume it proves the case. Federal law says otherwise.

Under 49 U.S.C. section 1154, no part of an NTSB accident report may be admitted into evidence in a civil action for damages arising from a matter mentioned in the report. Courts have generally drawn a line between the Board’s factual findings, which can be usable, and its analysis and probable cause determination, which are not. The practical effect is that a claim cannot be built on the report. The underlying evidence has to be developed independently, by the parties, through their own experts.

The investigation also controls access to the wreckage while it is open. Parties are not free to examine components on their own timetable, and preserving the right to participate in or observe examinations requires acting early. NTSB accident data remains useful for identifying patterns across similar aircraft and operators even where the report itself cannot be put before a jury.

International Flights Follow a Treaty, Not Florida Law

Where an injury occurs on an international flight, or during boarding or disembarking, the Montreal Convention governs and it displaces state law claims entirely. Three features differ sharply from an ordinary claim.

• Strict liability up to a threshold. A carrier is liable for bodily injury or death from an accident aboard the aircraft without proof of negligence, up to a limit expressed in special drawing rights and revised periodically. Beyond that limit, the carrier can avoid liability only by proving it was not negligent, which reverses the usual burden in the claimant’s favor.
• Two years, with no tolling. Suit must be brought within two years of arrival, the scheduled arrival, or the date the carriage stopped. Courts treat this as a condition on the right itself rather than an ordinary limitations period, so the usual extensions do not apply.
• Only certain courts will hear it. The Convention lists the permitted forums, tied to the carrier’s domicile and principal place of business, the place the contract was made, the destination, and in death and injury cases the passenger’s principal residence in defined circumstances. Filing outside them fails on jurisdiction regardless of the merits.

Federal Law Sets the Standard of Care

Aviation safety is comprehensively regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, and courts in this circuit have held that federal law supplies the applicable standard of care in aviation, while state law continues to provide the remedies and damages. The practical consequence is that a claim is built on the federal aviation regulations rather than on a general argument about reasonable conduct.

That makes specific regulatory duties the framework of the case: airworthiness and inspection requirements, maintenance record obligations, pilot certification and currency, flight and duty time limits, weather minimums, and operating rules that differ between private flying, flight instruction, and commercial charter. A charter operator flying under commercial rules carries obligations a private pilot does not, and establishing which rules applied is an early and decisive step. Where a component failed, a product liability claim runs alongside, subject to the repose period above.

Why Choose Jacobson Injury Firm for Your Pompano Beach Aviation Claim?

Command of the Rules That Decide These Cases

Aviation claims are shaped by which federal framework applies before they are shaped by the facts of the flight. Identifying the operator, the applicable operating rules, the maintenance chain, and whether treaty or repose provisions apply is what determines whether a claim exists and where it can be brought. Claims proceeding in state court arise through the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Broward County, and many aviation claims proceed in federal court instead.

Demonstrated Results for Injured Clients

The firm has recovered millions of dollars for injured clients across serious injury matters. Our client reviews describe how the firm communicates through complex cases.

No Attorney Fees Unless You Recover

Aviation claims at the firm run on contingency. Nothing is owed at the outset, we advance case costs, and no recovery means no fee.

Key Components of a Pompano Beach Aviation Claim

The Records That Establish What Failed

Aviation generates documentation that no other transport mode matches, and it is where these cases are won. Aircraft and engine logbooks, airworthiness directives and whether they were complied with, service bulletins, the most recent annual or hundred-hour inspection, the pilot’s logbook and medical certificate, weight and balance calculations, fuel records, air traffic control recordings and radar data, weather briefings obtained before departure, and maintenance invoices. Much of it sits with an operator or a maintenance facility with an interest in its disappearance, and a preservation demand is the first thing we send. Physical evidence in the wreckage remains under investigative control until released.

Identifying Everyone in the Chain

The pilot is rarely the only defendant, and frequently did not survive. A flight school, charter operator, or fractional owner may be liable for the pilot’s conduct and for its own training and dispatch decisions. A maintenance facility may have signed off on work never performed. An FBO may have supplied contaminated or wrong-grade fuel. A component manufacturer, an engine overhaul shop, or an avionics installer may each bear responsibility. Determining who is at fault in aviation means mapping the maintenance and operational chain rather than reconstructing a single moment.

Claims by People on the Ground

An aircraft that comes down on a house, a road, or a business injures people who were never passengers, and their position is different. The eighteen-year repose does not apply to claims by non-occupants, and Florida law governs without treaty complications. These claims can also reach the property owner or operator of the airfield where a hazard contributed, which overlaps with premises liability.

Calculating Damages

Damages cover medical care, future treatment, lost earnings, diminished earning capacity, pain, disability, and disfigurement. Aviation accidents produce a distinctive injury pattern: burns from post-impact fire, spinal compression from vertical impact, and brain injury. Serious cases fall within our catastrophic injury practice. Florida Statute 768.0427 governs how medical damages are proven where Florida law applies.

Deadlines That Do Not Match Each Other

A domestic aviation claim under Florida law carries the two-year negligence deadline set by Florida Statute 95.11, shortened from four years in March 2023. An international carriage claim carries the treaty’s separate two-year condition. A manufacturer claim faces the eighteen-year repose regardless of either. A crash over water beyond territorial limits can fall under a separate federal death statute that restricts recoverable damages. Our statute of limitations resource covers the Florida framework, and which of these applies has to be settled early rather than assumed.

“Excellent service and results. Attorney Jacobson was professional, responsive, and truly cared about my case. They explained everything clearly and delivered great results.”

Isaac M.

Aviation in Pompano Beach

The Pompano Beach Airpark sits in the middle of the city and is one of the busier general aviation fields in South Florida, handling flight training, private and business aircraft, banner towing, and skydiving operations. Training activity means a high proportion of low-time pilots in the pattern, and the field sits inside some of the most congested controlled airspace in the country, with Fort Lauderdale Executive, Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International, Boca Raton, and Miami traffic converging nearby. Departures over the beach and the ocean add water landings to the risk profile, which can bring the maritime and offshore rules covered on our maritime page into play. Helicopter tours, medical transport, and law enforcement aviation operate across Broward County, and the City of Pompano Beach operates the airpark itself, which means a claim implicating the field brings the government notice requirements that apply to municipal defendants.

Aviation Accident Claims We Handle

General Aviation Crashes

Single and twin-engine aircraft accidents involving pilot error, fuel exhaustion or mismanagement, loss of control, and controlled flight into terrain. These are the most common aviation accidents by a wide margin and rarely make the news beyond a short item.

Flight Training Accidents

Instructional flights involve an instructor with a duty to the student and to people on the ground. Inadequate pre-flight briefing, exercises beyond the student’s level, and failure to take control in time are recurring themes, and the flight school carries liability for its instructors and its dispatch decisions.

Charter and Air Taxi Incidents

Commercial operators fly under stricter rules than private pilots, covering maintenance, duty time, weather minimums, and dispatch. Operating a flight under private rules that should have been conducted commercially is itself a violation, and it appears in these cases more often than the industry acknowledges.

Helicopter Accidents

Tour, medical transport, law enforcement, and utility operations. Helicopters have distinct failure modes, and low-altitude operations leave minimal margin for recovery.

Maintenance and Component Failure

Improper repairs, work signed off but not performed, unapproved parts, and engine or propeller failure. Where a component caused the accident, both the maintenance facility and the manufacturer may be liable, subject to the repose analysis above.

Skydiving and Banner Towing Operations

Specialized operations conducted locally involve their own equipment, training, and regulatory requirements, and participant waivers raise the same enforceability questions that arise in other recreational activities.

Ground and Airport Incidents

Injuries from propeller and rotor strikes, jet blast, ground vehicles, ramp equipment, and falls during boarding. Where a crash injures people on the ground, their claims avoid several of the restrictions passengers face. Fatal aviation accidents follow the framework on our wrongful death page, subject to whichever federal regime applies. See all practice areas.

What to Do After an Aviation Accident

• Get medical evaluation immediately, including for injuries that seem minor. Vertical impact forces cause spinal compression injuries that present later, and smoke inhalation damage develops over hours.
• Do not sign anything from an airline, charter operator, or insurer, and be cautious about early settlement offers framed as immediate assistance.
• Preserve your ticket, boarding pass, booking confirmation, and any correspondence. On an international flight these establish which treaty rules and which courts apply.
• Photograph what you safely can, and write down the aircraft registration number, the operator, and the names of crew, other passengers, and witnesses.
• Understand that the official investigation serves a safety purpose rather than yours, and that its report cannot be used as evidence. Independent investigation has to run alongside it.
• Contact a lawyer quickly so a preservation demand reaches the operator and maintenance facility while records still exist, and decline recorded statements until then. See our guide to insurance companies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sue the aircraft manufacturer?

Sometimes, but a federal statute bars most of these claims. The General Aviation Revitalization Act imposes an eighteen-year repose period running from the aircraft’s first delivery, and it applies even where manufacturer negligence contributed. Exceptions exist for knowing concealment from the FAA, for replacement components installed within the period, and for people who were not aboard the aircraft.

Why does the eighteen-year clock start at delivery rather than at the crash?

Because it is a statute of repose rather than a limitations period. A limitations period starts when you are injured. A repose period starts when the product was delivered, which means a claim can be barred before an accident ever occurs. Much of the general aviation fleet is older than eighteen years, so the provision defeats manufacturer claims routinely.

Can I use the NTSB report in my case?

Not as evidence. Federal law bars admission of NTSB accident reports in civil damages actions, and courts have generally treated the Board’s analysis and probable cause determination as excluded. The underlying facts must be developed independently through your own experts, which is a significant part of the work in these cases.

What if I was hurt on an international flight?

An international treaty governs and it displaces state law. The carrier is strictly liable up to a set threshold without proof of negligence, and beyond it the carrier must prove it was not negligent. Suit must be brought within two years, and only in courts the treaty permits. Filing in the wrong place or waiting past the deadline ends the claim regardless of merit.

Who besides the pilot can be responsible?

Frequently several parties. A flight school or charter operator for its pilot and its own decisions, a maintenance facility for improper or undocumented work, a fuel provider for contaminated or wrong-grade fuel, an overhaul shop, an avionics installer, and a component manufacturer. Pilots often do not survive general aviation crashes, which makes the wider chain central rather than secondary.

I was hurt on the ground when an aircraft came down. Is my claim different?

Yes, and generally better. The eighteen-year repose does not apply to claims by people who were not aboard, and international treaty restrictions do not apply either. Florida law governs, and the airfield operator may share responsibility where a hazard or operational failure contributed.

How long do I have to file an aviation claim?

It depends which framework applies. A domestic claim under Florida law carries two years, shortened from four in March 2023. An international carriage claim carries a separate two-year treaty condition that does not toll. A manufacturer claim faces the eighteen-year repose independently of both.

Does federal law or Florida law apply?

Both, in different roles. Federal aviation regulations supply the standard of care, so a claim is built on specific regulatory duties rather than a general argument about reasonable conduct. Florida law generally continues to provide the remedies and damages, unless a treaty or a separate federal statute displaces it.

What if the pilot died in the crash?

The claim proceeds against the pilot’s estate and, more importantly, against the operator, employer, or flight school responsible for that pilot, along with the maintenance and manufacturing chain. A deceased pilot does not end the case, though it does make documentary evidence more important than testimony.

How much does an aviation accident lawyer cost?

Our firm works on a contingency fee, so nothing is owed at the outset. These cases carry substantial costs for expert analysis, and we advance them. If there is no recovery, no attorney fee is owed and the consultation is free.

Speak With a Pompano Beach Aviation Accident Lawyer

Maintenance records go missing, aircraft are repaired or scrapped, and several of the deadlines in aviation run on clocks that started before the accident. Reaching out early is what preserves the records and settles which framework applies to your claim. Consultations are free and you pay nothing unless we recover for you. Call (561) 567-7163 or send us a message. The firm also serves Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, and West Palm Beach, with the full list on our areas we serve page and further reading in our personal injury resources and blog.