The downed flight prompted a number of wrongful death lawsuits against the airline. Baum Hedlund Aviation attorney John Greaves was asked to help explain the complex nature of these lawsuits. John Greaves discussed the many difficulties inherent in deciding how much money is owed to surviving family members after a mass disaster. When considering lifetime earning capacity versus emotional loss, Mr. Greaves explained the issue jurors face with a series of questions: “Whose life is worth more? A man who earns less money, but spends a lot of time with his family? Is the loss of that father worth more or less than a father who earns a million dollars a year, but is never home?”Baum Hedlund attorneys were appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for this accident and handled 15 of the wrongful death cases resulting from the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash.