It took only two days for the nation’s largest personal injury law firm to find clients to sue over the fatal crash of a UPS cargo flight at the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
Three plaintiffs filed suit Nov. 6 in Kentucky federal court against UPS, General Electric and Boeing. They make claims for property damage and toxic smoke and are represented by lawyers for Morgan & Morgan.
It was Nov. 4 when the left engine of an MD-11 separated on takeoff, causing the plane to crash to the ground and explode. Reporting says 14 people died, including all three on board the flight bound for Hawaii.
The case is filed as a class action for those impacted by the accident. Plaintiff Shakeara Ware says she breathed in toxic smoke and soot, which required a trip to the emergency room.
“The crash of UPS MD-11 acted like a bomb, igniting 220,000 pounds of jet fuel, as well as combustible materials in surrounding locations,” the lawsuit says. “These combustibles included oils located at a petroleum recycling company nearby.”
Boeing’s MD-11 has the second-worst safety record of any commercial aircraft still in use, the suit says. It cites two MD-11 crashes in 2009, including a fatal FedEx wreck in Tokyo.
Other plaintiffs are Triple D, Inc., an automotive repair shop that was destroyed, and Ensey LLC, whose property is now contaminated with chemicals. A press release from Morgan & Morgan say it is “committed to uncovering the truth and will stop at nothing to achieve justice.”
General Electric manufactured the CF6 engine used on the UPS plane. The lawsuit notes a 2016 failure of that engine caused an American Airlines flight to fall through the roof of a UPS facility.
Also, a CF6 malfunctioned in 1989 on a United Airlines flight and caused a crash that killed 112, and 10 years earlier, the engine fell off an American Airlines jet in Chicago and killed 273 people.
The proposed class of plaintiffs is people and companies who lived, worked or owned property within five miles of UPS Worldport and suffered injury, death, property damage, loss of use and enjoyment, business interruption, lost business revenues, lost wages or emotional distress.
