CoastieJohn wrote:
More of a general feeling question.....if any of you warbird folks lost a family member in this mishap or any other warbird mishap, would you sue?
For myself....I don't know. It would depend on the facts that come out of the various official investigations. In this case, the lawyers are scatter-gunning for any "gotcha" angle (ie...carrying metal chocks) to pile on and gin up any award amount for the clients and themselves. As a former fixer/flyer....to me that is not a factor and that would not push me to sue. Intentional neglect in fixing or flying....maybe.
This is a valid question. My comparison to the situation is the Galloping Ghost accident. I witnessed it, luckily wasn’t affected physically and neither were family members. Out of the dozen killed and 60 or so injured (some of them life altering), I think there were maybe 1 or 2 lawsuits IIRC. The Reno community is incredibly tight knit and the last thing any of the survivors or family members wanted to do was hurt the races and potentially kill them entirely. The affected were mostly box seat members and plenty of them had been going for 20, 30, 40 years and Reno is in their blood.
When it comes to warbird operations, rides, etc., me in particular I’m really not sure. Reno I would never sue for the same reason as stated above, but in a situation like Collings, if my not suing meant the continuation of warbird rides and operations and the continuation of Collings, no chance I would sue. But in this case, with some of the other family member’s suing, I would probably consider, especially if I felt suing would help the situation of losing someone in my family.