Aviation

Kevin P. Durkin, partner at Clifford Law Offices, will be speaking at the 55th Annual Southern Methodist University (SMU) Air Law Symposium on March 24-25. Durkin will be speaking on the consolidated litigation in federal district court in Chicago against Boeing involving the deaths of 157 people when a 737 MAX aircraft crashed in Ethiopia in March, 2019. Clifford Law Offices represents 72 families who lost loved ones in that crash. Durkin has been involved…

There is perhaps no other type of passenger vehicle crash more frightening or devastating than an aviation accident. From the Tenerife Airport Disaster in 1977 to the recent Boeing 737 Max8 crash in Ethiopia, aviation accidents are more often than not catastrophic and devastating for more than just the people on the plane. And while the total number of aviation accidents has decreased since the 1980s, when they happen, the results are utterly detrimental. What…

An Air India Express plane crashed Friday (Aug. 7, 2020) with 190 people on board as it overshot the runway at Karipur Airport in southern India, hurtling the Boeing 737 into a valley about 35 feet down. It is being reported that at least 14 people are dead and more than 140 people are injured, some of them seriously. The pilot and co-pilot are reported to be among the dead. The plane took off from…

The National Law Journal recently honored law firms and lawyers handling cutting-edge work on behalf of plaintiffs in practice areas ranging from mass torts to securities litigation. They named Clifford Law Offices Aviation Law Firm of the Year. The National Law Journal interviewed Bob Clifford, founder and senior partner at Clifford Law Offices, for their 2020 Elite Trial Lawyers article. In the article, Bob discusses what he believes will be the greatest challenge in the future…

Family members and friends of those who lost loved ones in the crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 in Ethiopia have petitioned Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to withhold CARES Act financial assistance from Boeing unless the money is conditioned upon aviation safety and corporate governance reform. Some 1,744 family members and friends of the 157 who died in the Flight ET302 crash on March 10, 2019, signed the petition. They stated that the $17…

In what some crash victims’ families are calling an insensitive move, Canada’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities is holding a Committee meeting Tuesday, March 10th in Ottawa on the certification of aircraft in that country following the crash of a Boeing jet in Ethiopia exactly a year ago. Hundreds of family members and friends who lost loved ones in the Boeing crash outside of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019, have…

The U.S. House Transportation Committee Friday (March 6, 2020) released a preliminary investigative report based on the hearings it has held on the design, development and certification of the Boeing 737 Max8 crash in Ethiopia that occurred on March 10 last year. Also, it is being reported that Ethiopian crash investigators also released a separate draft interim report Friday that concluded the March 10 crash was caused by the plane’s faulty design. In a separate…

On March 10, 2019, 157 people died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. The families of those 157 people are consumed by grief, and attorney Bob Clifford wants to make the aviation giant pay for their pain. Bob Clifford, founder and senior partner at Clifford Law Offices, was featured in “The Man Who’s Taking on Boeing” in Chicago Magazine. Click here to read the  print version. Clifford, along with ten other Clifford Law…

Eight Canadian families who lost loved ones in the crash of a Boeing 737 Max8 airliner met on Wednesday (February 12, 2020) with the country’s Minister of Transport Marc Garneau and came away with more questions than answers from the country’s highest cabinet position that oversees the federal government’s transportation regulatory and development. The three-hour meeting, which came after numerous requests by the families, resulted in very few answers for them but with a promise…