Helicopters are extraordinary machines, capable of vertical flight, hovering, and precise maneuvering in challenging environments. However, this complexity, combined with their frequent low-altitude operations and exposure to unpredictable conditions makes them more vulnerable to accidents than fixed-wing aircraft. Even a small mechanical defect, a momentary lapse by the pilot, or sudden changes in weather can trigger tragic crashes, resulting in devastating injuries and loss of life.
At Wisner Baum, our helicopter crash attorneys bring decades of dedicated experience representing victims and families impacted by these catastrophic events. Based in California, we handle helicopter crash cases nationwide, collaborating closely with leading experts in helicopter design, safety, engineering, and accident investigation. We uncover the facts behind every crash, pursuing all responsible parties and ensuring victims receive the justice and compensation they deserve.
Our proven track record includes securing billions in verdicts and settlements across all practice areas, including helicopter accidents involving various models, including the Robinson R44, Bell 206B, Bell 407, Sikorsky helicopters, military aircraft, sightseeing tours, and medical transport flights. We don't just help families rebuild their lives; we fight for important safety reforms throughout the aviation industry.
After decades of experience in this field, we have seen many reasons why helicopter crashes occur and we have worked hard to improve helicopter safety by bringing many of these issues to light. Because of our unique experience, our attorneys understand how to investigate the causes of helicopter accidents and identify responsible parties and hold them accountable.
The most common causes of helicopter crashes are:
According to helicopter safety statistics, helicopters crash more often than small planes and vastly more often than large airliners. At Wisner Baum, we have found that there are several factors that contribute to the higher accident rate. Helicopters are a unique kind of aircraft capable of vertical flight. They can effectively move back and forth, hover, and quickly change altitude in ways that airplanes cannot. Due to these differences, a helicopter can operate low to the ground and in areas that require a high level of maneuverability, such as between buildings, or near mountain ranges. However, many of these ideal uses for helicopters have inherent dangers of their own.
Military or medical helicopters are often flown into dangerous and stressful situations where the potential for pilot error is heightened even further. Flying low through buildings in order to rescue an accident victim is not easy – and these sensitive operations are made even more difficult when you consider that most helicopters don’t have a set flight path or the controlled environment of an airport runway and air traffic controllers to assist them. Even with the assistance of air traffic control or helicopter pad operators, human error can play a part in causing helicopter crashes. Inaccurate information or a brief moment of inattention can bring about disaster when there is so much at stake.
Another important factor that may add to the higher helicopter crash rate is that helicopters have many more moving parts than a plane, which means there are more parts that can potentially malfunction. Each individual moving part is essential to the operation of the aircraft and if any one of those parts is improperly designed or manufactured, deadly helicopter crashes can be the result.
Additionally, because these parts are in constant motion they wear out faster than most plane parts and require very specific inspection and maintenance in order to continue functioning properly. If the helicopter maintenance provider is negligent and skips steps or fails to notice an issue with the aircraft it can easily lead to helicopter accidents.
Sightseeing helicopter tours are particularly risky because many operate under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), leaving pilots heavily dependent on their judgment and sight without advanced onboard instruments used by larger commercial planes. Popular destinations like Hawaii are subject to sudden and severe weather changes, resulting in some of the deadliest helicopter crashes in the nation.
Since 1985, over 55 tour helicopter crashes have occurred in Hawaii alone, causing numerous fatalities and serious injuries. Wisner Baum has handled multiple cases involving Hawaii helicopter crashes, including lawsuits against operators like Heli USA Airways, Jack Harter Helicopters, and many other incidents where negligence, mechanical failure, or other safety issues led to tragedy.
Our law firm has handled personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits on behalf of crash victims and their families following virtually every type of aviation accident, from accidents involving major commercial airline jets to non-commercial accidents, air medical accidents, charter plane accidents, private airplane crashes and helicopter crashes (commercial, military and private).
We have represented victims in helicopter tour crash cases with general negligence and product liability claims against various defendants, including manufacturers such as Aerospatiale, Bell Helicopter Textron, Hughes Helicopters, McDonnell Douglas, Messerschmitt-Bolkow Blohm, Robinson Helicopters, and Sikorsky.
A Robinson R44 helicopter carrying a newly married couple and a wedding photographer crashed after the aircraft’s engine lost power. The three passengers and the pilot all sustained serious injuries. Wisner Baum helicopter crash attorneys filed a lawsuit against Robinson Helicopter Co. in June of 2023. The firm has represented victims in over a dozen cases against Robinson.
On August 8, 2011, two accomplished military pilots were operating an AH-6M helicopter in a routine training exercise when an unexpected malfunction led to a fatal helicopter crash that killed both of the officers. We filed suit alleging that manufacturing flaws and quality assurance failures led the aircraft and parts manufacturers to provide an unreliable, unsafe, defectively manufactured helicopter that had safety issues with the engine, fuel control system, and other flight components.
After an automobile crash on September 27, 2008, Maryland state police sent a helicopter to pick up a 17 year-old who was injured in the accident and transport her to a nearby hospital. During the trip to the hospital the helicopter was forced to divert due to adverse weather and ended up crashing in a wooded park area. The helicopter crash killed four people on board, including the injured patient being transported. The National Transportation Safety Board conducted an investigation and found that a combination of factors, including outdated weather information from the air traffic controller, caused the crash.
We sued the FAA alleging that the air traffic controllers were negligent in their communications with the helicopter, and additionally that the controllers were unresponsive and inattentive when the pilot asked for help.
Also, the State of Maryland filed a lawsuit against the FAA alleging that the air traffic controllers were not able to handle ground-based radar guides and therefore gave the pilot of the medevac helicopter weather information that was about five hours old.
On August 2, 2007 just outside of Easton, Washington a Robinson R44 helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff in mountainous terrain. Witnesses reported seeing the helicopter takeoff and ascend to approximately 30 feet, then after about 100 feet of travel, the tail started swaying side to side, and the pilot had to get it down, albeit with a hard landing. A post-crash fire consumed the helicopter and those onboard. All four passengers sustained fatal injuries. Our helicopter crash lawsuit alleged that a design flaw in the helicopter led the occupants to burn to death after a very survivable, low impact helicopter accident. The work our firm performed in this case helped lead to safer design of the fuel tanks in the R44.
An Aerospatiale Helicopter operated by Heli-USA Airways Inc. crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Kailiu Point on September 23, 2005. The helicopter was in the process of a sightseeing helicopter tour when the pilot continued to fly in adverse weather conditions. This resulted in the loss of control after an encounter with a microburst. Also contributing to the accident was the inadequate FAA surveillance of operating restrictions and a lack of flotation equipment on the helicopter. Three passengers suffered minor injuries, and three others were drowning-related fatalities.
Five people died when a Bell 206B helicopter tour, operated by Jack Harter Helicopters, crashed while nearing the Waialeale Crater on Kauai. The pilot failed to maintain adequate terrain clearance / altitude while descending into adverse weather over mountainous terrain.
A Bell 206B helicopter operated by Pacific Helicopter Tours, Inc., of Kahului, Hawaii, was substantially damaged during a power line construction project. The helicopter pilot and passenger sustained serious injuries.
A sightseeing helicopter operated by Hawaii Helicopters, Inc., in Maui, took off and flew into adverse weather conditions. The Aerospatiale AS-350B helicopter and all seven passengers and the pilot, died when it collided with mountainous terrain near the town of Hana.
Our nationally recognized helicopter crash lawyers combine deep knowledge of aviation law with hands-on understanding of aircraft operations. Several Wisner Baum attorneys have been honored among Aviation Counsel Magazine’s Recommended High Flyers, described as some of the “most elite aviation lawyers in the world.” Collectively, we have won over half a billion dollars for aviation accident victims.
If you or a family member has suffered in a helicopter accident, contact us for a free, confidential consultation. We have the skill, resources, and determination to take on manufacturers, operators, and government entities — and win.
"Wisner Baum gave exceptional attention to all aspects of the case, detailed inquiry, and tenacious overview of all the information submitted. The paralegals are efficient and diligent. I was completely surprised to find an empathic personal message to take care of my own health during the challenging time of being a full-time caretaker.*"
In May of 2019, the jury in the case of Pilliod et al. v, Monsanto Company ordered the agrochemical giant to pay $2.055 billion in damages to the plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, a Bay Area couple in their 70s. R. Brent Wisner served as co-lead trial attorney for the Pilliods, delivering the opening and closing statements and cross-examining several of Monsanto’s experts. Wisner Baum managing shareholder, Michael Baum and attorney Pedram Esfandiary also served on the trial team in the Pilliod case.
The judge later reduced their award to $87M. Monsanto appealed the Pilliod’s verdict which the California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District denied on August 9, 2021. Monsanto then requested the California Supreme Court review the appeal’s court decision, which the court denied on Nov. 17, 2021. Monsanto (Bayer) then submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court which SCOTUS denied on June 27, 2022, allowing the final judgment of $87M to remain intact.
$289.2 million jury verdict in Monsanto Roundup trial
Wisner Baum co-represented Dewayne “Lee” Johnson in the first Roundup cancer lawsuit to proceed to trial. On Aug. 10, 2018, a San Francisco jury ordered Monsanto to pay $39.25 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages to Mr. Johnson, a former groundskeeper who alleged exposure to Monsanto’s herbicides caused him to develop terminal non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Months after the jury verdict, the judge overseeing the trial reduced the punitive damages to $39.25 million. Mr. Johnson decided to accept the remittitur, bringing the adjusted amount awarded to Mr. Johnson $78.5 million.
Monsanto (Bayer) appealed the verdict and Johnson cross appealed. On July 20, 2020, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict against Monsanto but reduced Mr. Johnson’s award to $20.5 million. The company chose not to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, ending the litigation.
In 2016, Wisner Baum attorney Timothy A. Loranger and six other attorneys in the Plaintiffs’ Management Committee were able to secure a $265 million settlement for victims of the 2015 Amtrak 188 derailment in Philadelphia, one of the largest in the U.S. for 2016.
