As reported by Associated Press, the remaining seven federal court cases involving the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 that killed 50 people near Buffalo, New York, five years ago have settled in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthey. Robert A. Clifford and Kevin P. Durkin, partners at Clifford Law Offices, were set to try five of seven of these cases at the end of May. They settled for a confidential amount. The lawsuits alleged that the pilots and flight’s operators, Continental Airlines and its regional carrier, Colgan Air, Inc. (who operated Flight 3407 under a Capacity Purchase Agreement with Continental Airlines) as well as the parent company, Pinnacle Air, were reckless and caused the crash of the jet carrying 50 people from Newark to Buffalo in 2009. Three more cases remain to be tried in state court. The families of those who lost loved ones were pleading with federal officials to overhaul training requirements for pilots and other safety-oriented changes, particularly regarding regional airlines – which often fly the smaller aircraft into airports that are not as cost-effective for the major carriers to fly in and out of. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has strengthened many of those requirements in light of this crash due to the ensuing, tireless actions of the family members. Clifford, senior partner at the firm who would have been the lead attorney at trial in the remaining cases in which Clifford Law Offices represented the Plaintiffs, talked to AP reporter Carolyn Thompson about how the case was allowed to be “litigated in secrecy” in federal court in Buffalo. “‘The public loses the safety benefits that come from the disclosure. Now we’ve got one more incident of sweeping the bad conduct under the rug and nobody sees it,’ he said,” to the AP reporter. To read the story in its entirety, here are links to some of those stories:
- Wall Street Journal
- Newsday
- CNBC
- Yahoo! News
- Miami Herald
- San Francisco Chronicle
- Houston Chronicle
- Sacramento Bee
- Buffalo News
- Kansas City Star
- Washington (DC) Times
- Raleigh (NC) News & Observer
- Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger
- Auburn (NY) Citizen
- Arlington (TX) Star-Telegram
- San Antonio Express-News