peril of getting off/on aircraft with propeller spinning?

[olasek]

23-year old model and the editor of fashion magazine LoLo Lauren Scruggs has been severely injured Saturday night at McKinney airport, Texas. She walked right into a spinning propeller after completing a flight to watch Christmas lights. She lost her left hand and suffered severe injuries to her face and brain, her left eye may not survive either. She was airlifted to a hospital in Dallas, after multiple reconstructive surgeries she seems to be responding to verbal commands and is able to move her other limbs.

She just got off a brand new 2011 Aviat Husky A-1C-180. The pilot was picking up the next passenger hence (my guess) he probably did not shut the engine down.

This brings a question - could a pilot be liable for not shutting down the engine? Frankly my mind is blank on the subject and I was startled by this accident.

 

[Jim Logajan]

The lawsuit

Sued the plane's insurer?

How can that yield anything, other than (hopefully a dismissed case) given that:

• The insurance company has no contractual obligations to her; just with the insured.
• The insurance company wasn't flying the airplane and did not own the airplane.
• The insurance company has the same relationship to the injured as the pilot's electric company has to the injured.

Guess my understanding of the law isn't what it should be.

 

[Jim Logajan]

No, your instincts are similar to my own. It is possible that she is making a contract claim directly against the carrier, but I don't know. I tend to believe the news article has the details wrong. The media are really bad about reporting on legal matters. I would want to see the complaint myself. I would also want to see the policy to see if she somehow meets the definition of an insured under the policy.

Looks like Reuters has a better description of the lawsuit, though I'm still not clear how, as a third party, she has standing to sue about the interpretation of terms in a contract she is not a party to:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/29/tagblogsfindlawcom2012-injured-idUS327246045120120329