Comair FO makes statement
 

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/16296201.htm

I wish a peaceful Christmas season to him.

From article: "The crash has spawned multiple lawsuits, including at least one that names Polehinke as a defendant. Polehinke had taken over the controls after the plane's captain, Jeffrey Clay, who died in the accident, taxied the plane into position. Instead of turning onto the runway for commercial flights, it took off from the runway meant for smaller planes."

I think my blood presure just doubled. God ******ing damn lawyers and the greed they stand for. These degenerate money lovers want to personally harrass a man whose body is permanently mangled. I have strong suspicion most personal injury lawyers are going to hell.

I am willing to bet the damage to himself is the least of his concerns. Imagine the mental anguish that he experiences every time he is reminded of the crash. I cannot imagine what is is like to be him right now. The last thing that he needs in his life is a lawsuit.

Exactly. A 4th year Comair FO makes about $45K. Yea, sounds like he has tons of assets that they can take (extreme sarcasm). The lawyers are greedy and dishonest but they're not stupid. They know this guy basically has no money. Naming him as a defendant only serves as personal harrassment.

In a related story, did you know that in the American civil court system a plaintiff can openly lie and get away with it as long as they're not under oath?? Heres some proof from the lawsuit I'm involved in from my car accident 3.5 years ago: Turns out the accident didn't cause any of the abdominal problems the plaintiff is having. They're all from degenerative disease. In fact, it turns out the plaintiff has a long documented history of abdominal and also psychiatric problems dating back well before the accident. But she and her lawyer claim otherwise in the law suit. There's no way in hell her medical history "slipped her mind" when she filed that suit. She knew exactly what she was doing and that she was making it all up. But because the peperwork involved in filing the suit does not constitute "under oath", she's allowed to get away with the fraud.

As for personal harrassment, it's alot of anxiety for a 21 year old college kid. Just last night I took my first dose of Lexapro (anti-anxiety medication) and my medical is now officially void. I've been forced to give up flying for a year all because a scumbag lawyer agreed to prosicute an openly phony case. I hope all these lawyers get theirs in the afterlife.

My thoughts exactly. But IMO the families are to blame too. I mean, look at the shape this guy is in. They are like vultures. What do they want from the poor guy? Blood? I guess a shiny new Jag would make everything better. Arrrgh! Greedy lawyers and people make me sick.

Well, his error did harm them, and that responsibility is exactly why everyone here complains that they are not paid enough.

I'm not a fan of lawyers, but it drives home the responsibilities in the profession. Despite what you say here, if a MD made an error that killed a relative of yours, how would you REALLY chalk that up?

Spongebob

This is SOP for families of victims after any aircraft accident folks. You start at the top with the guy with the deepest pockets (usually the aircraft manufacturer or the airline) and go on down the list suing anyone who may have possibly been involved. Most of the lawsuits never really go anywhere. Lawyers are not stupid and can see they won't get much from the FO so they are not going to work too hard on that part of the lawsuit. They file the suit because some grieving family member wants their pound of flesh and then let it quietly go away. 30% of nothing is still nothing. It may be sickening but thats what happens when we, as a country, graduate twice as many lawyers as engineers.

Well said!

You have to prove the MD was willfully at error. Very hard to do.

Well put. I second that. If one of my kids were on board, I would want blood as well. After all, It was a stupid mistake that they made.

What, flying an RJ?

Not only that, but the tactic is to pit multiple defendent's against each other. You can be sure that the FO's lawyer(s) will encourage him to make a claim against Comair, Bombardier, FAA, and Lexington airport, maybe even Jeppensen. He'll surely quickly testify to defend himself at the expense of the above if it means protecting his interests. This legal stuff isn't pretty but be assured that if you need a good lawyer, you will have a new appreciation for their skill in practising their profession. It's not personal it's business.

Onfinal

You're sound like a nice person. Wait til you ****** up.

What purpose would that serve?? Other than feeding your primative human psychological need for revenge and make you feel big and powerful, and put a Jaguar and beach house on your list of "cool ****** I own", theres no point. You will be sorely disappointed when it solves none of your problems.

I'm sorry that I am not an idealist. The bottom line is that there is a HUGE difference between "f*&king up", and killing 49 people. All I am saying is that there must be accountability in this world, whether it was a mistake or not. Sorry if that is rash, but it is a fact of life. Merry Christmas.

ps that comment about the RJ was funny. :)

I can't believe how often you are able to come on here, and prove how disconnected with reality you are. At first I thought you were just a mainline driver ignoring their own generations mistakes, and somehow working out a way to blame RJ drivers for scope being raised. But now I realize how far into space your mind wanders.
I pray that you never make a mistake. I'm sure that this man finds himself "accountable" as you say everyday. It doesn't mean the courts should be coming down on him. You may think you're invincible, but you could've very easily had made the same mistake. But I guess because you fly boxes, your mistakes are forgivable. We will be setting a very dangerous precedent if every time a plane crashes, and pilot error is determined to be the/a cause, we become financially liable to injured survivors and families of fatalities.
I've also noticed HotMamma that you don't seem willing to answer any of my posts asking you how on earth you decided that it's my fault that legacy carriers unions keep giving up more and more scope.

MikeB525,

I think some of us are being a bit naive about this. Although there may be a few opportunist involved here, they're also those who lost a huge part of their families income, because of this incident. Maybe the sole breadwinner died in the accident, maybe the issues of choosing between providing income for one's family, and providing childcare are leading to financial ruin. Hopefully, people have insured themselves against these things, but many people under insure themselves because they never consider the true monetary value of their existence. Think about the financial challenges to your family if you were suddenly no longer in the picture. Would you want them to go down the road to poverty, or seek compensation for the damage done to their lifestyle. Yes opportunist exist, so do revenge seekers, but 8/10people are trying to make a responsible decision to provide for their families under difficult circumstances and a huge financial blow to their lives. Remember the legal system is not so much about justice as it is about settling disputes between people.

Onfinal

Mike, people will always sue and make phony claims. When I was just a couple of years older than you, some guy tried to sue me for a car accident as well. I was on my way to work in the ER and it was pouring rain. Instead of pulling over to the side, the guy in front of me decides to stop suddenly in the center lane of the freeway. As soon as I saw his brake lights, I immediately hit mine, only to find the pedal flopping to the floor in my old car. My brakes had failed, the hydraulic lines had snapped according to the mechanics. Fortunately I was driving at a slow rate of speed because of the hard driving rain and didn't hit him all that hard. Of course, the guy said he had whiplash and other injuries caused by the accident. Someone I knew happened to know the guy I hit and told me that apparently he found out that I was married to an MD. What he didn't know is that my MD husband had just finished medical school, was starting his first year of a four year residency and didn't have a dime to his name. I was working in the ER to pay off his 100 grand in medical school loans.

In addition to his alleged whiplash, he tried to sue me for bone spurs in his elbow, also wanted me to pay for his newly installed jacuzzi that he "needed" for physical therapy, and the new water bed that he bought in order to sleep...LOL...you don't have to be an MD to know that bone spurs aren't caused by an auto accident. :rolleyes:

On the day I was served my lawsuit, 2 years later, I happen to be 9 months pregnant with our first son. I was so upset that I went into labor. Try not to let this bother you and just let your insurance company handle it. My insurance company determined that the guy was full of sh*t, threw him a few thousand dollars to make him go away, and that was it. People get sued all the time and like someone else here said, much of the time the lawsuit just fades into oblivion. I would try meditation and yoga first to deal with your anxiety instead of the pills, and let the insurance company's lawyers handle it. That is what you pay your premiums for.

Good luck and Merry Christmas Mike!

Thanks for the enocuragment skygirl. As you probably read I'm not able to fly for a while because of the anti-anxiety medication, though it's actually not just the lawsuit itself. There's other craziness in my life as well. Even if no medication was involved I would probably still take time off from flying.

Lawsuit fraud is probably one of the most often committed crimes in the US and it's probably one of the least prosecuted. In another post I'll give you all two more personal stories.

There's also a definite ethics problem amongst the legal community. In my case my lawyer met with the plaintiff's lawyer and asked him what this dumb suit was all about. The plaintiff's lawyer said he was just "doing his job". That got me angry, because that's total BS. The only time it's a lawyer's "job" to represent somebody is when they're a public defender. In a provate practice a lawyer has the right to pick and choose his cases, and has an ethical obligation to deny representation to obviously phony clients.

In your case, skygirl, when it was found that the man was completely making everything up he should have been arrested and thrown in jail. As a matter of fact that's the way the law is indeed written, but it's seldom enforced.

I'll go out on a limb and guess the main reason is because EVERYTHING in government is controlled by lawyers. Most elected officials and appointed positions holders (like the police commissioners) are lawyers, and therefore won't prosecute fraud-commiters because they want to help their lawyer buddied make money. It's a tit-for-tat situation and the legal community is a pretty tight-nit group. Just my estimation.

Christmas Fraud Stories
 

Here are two personal storeis involving less-than-ethical lawsuits. The first is not actually fraud, just very tasteless.

My assistant manager at work was involved in a bad car accident a few years ago. He nearly went through the windshield because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. Had he been wearing it he probably would have walked away. He sued for $200K, but because he wasn't wearing a seatbelt he got only like $35K to pay for scar-correcting sugery. He just pocketed the money instead. He loves to brag about how not wearing his seat belt made him an @$$ load of money.

My aunt told me about this at thanksgiving. Many years ago my aunt had her leg severly injured in car accident. Like my assistant manager, had she been wearing her seat belt the injuries would have been much less severe. She was out of work for about 2 months and had to have a surgery. She tried suing for millions of dollars and openly told me how she wanted to reposses the other person's house
. Thankfully the settlement was within the insurance limit. My aunt claimed she had permanent mobility problems, which is total crap. In 1998 she went to CHINA to adopt a baby. I've known her my whole life and would never have guessed that she has trouble getting around. Mobility problems my @$$!!.

End of rant.

LOL. Because my son was born 4 days before my actual due date, his father and I laughed and joked about counter sueing him for anxiety inducing my labor, thus denying me of my right to a full term pregnancy. :D

I was too busy cuddling and cooing with my beautiful newborn infant son to give the dipsh*t guy anymore of my thought or energy. :)

LOL. I was considering countersuing this guy for causing emotional distress. I might run the idea by my lawyer.

Well, is the MD brain damaged and without a leg too? It's not the same thing.
The guy was on the plane too and his life will never be the same. Anyone that personally sues him IMO has no soul.

HMP, I've been trying to give you the benefit of the doubt on this board, but it gets harder with every post of yours that I read. Let me ask you this. How would you feel if you were the FO or capt. on that SWA airplane that went through the fence at MDW last year and killed the little boy? Would you be prepared just to hand over everything you have acquired in your life to their family because you made a mistake? It might have been a stupid mistake, but are you telling me you have never made a mistake in an airplane that could have potentially crashed the airplane if the circumstances were right? I think we all have. My point is is the guy WAS ON THE AIRPLANE, IS DAMAGED FOR LIFE and that is not enough for these people! They want money! Pathetic.

HMP, I gotta say, you are either a guy saying you are a woman to make us ladies look stupid or you are a woman that makes someone like me look bad. Thanks.

There is accountability for him. He is messed up for the rest of his life! Of course that is not good enough for greedy people.

My sentiments exactly. If they want a pound of flesh from Jim Polhinke they should just go to the UK Hospital and take a piece of his amputated leg. :mad:

So, why are you mad at the lawyers for telling the family not to give a statement at this time?

I drive to MDW once a week or so(to commute) and just last week I thought of that accident as I sat at the light at 55th and central. WHat came to my mind is just how many people have died in car wrecks in and around that intersection. Many many and more! The SWA accident and the car wrecks all have/had ONE thing in common......they were ACCIDENTS. Taking off on a runway with no lights, however, (IMHO) is NO accident. WOuld I have been upset if it were my child at 55th and central that night? Or in any car wreck anywhere? ABSOLUTELY. But I would have solace knowing that it was indeed an accident. Now, on the other hand, if my kid died because of haste and complacency(i.e taking off on a rwy with no lights), you bet I'd be pi$$ed. People rip on lawyers, but they are necessary and may help you too someday.

Are you under the delussion that they intentionally took off on a runway that was clearly too short for their jet and that they were not cleared for? Just when I thought your posts couldn't amaze me anymore than they already have, you come up with this kind of sh*t. It was an accident, and you suggesting otherwise is insane.

The bottom line is that any of us could have had that happen to them. If you say no way, you are lying to yourself. Especially, I say ESPECIALLY, flying night freight. I remember as an engineer going into PHL about a year ago after flying all night and I was so tired all I could think was "if all 3 light up (fire) right now, I could care less". THAT'S how tired I was. So, if you think you would never make a mistake that could be Monday morning quarterbacked as foolish, you are exactly the person that scares me.

hmmm. because I am convinced that I would never take off or allow my fellow crew member to T/O on the wrong rwy, that makes me scary? lol wow. That was a duzy! Thanks for the Christmas jingle! :D

Where in my post did I imply that they intentionally did it? Please come up with that evidence before I waste my time with you....next question please:p

For those of you out there who do not like what I have to say, could it be that you just don't like to know the truth about things? There are two forms of dialogue: objective and subjective. Forums are almost always subjective. I state my opinion of things as I see true. Although most of you like to jump on the "happy horse$hit" bandwagon, I elect not to. Before you criticize me for my comments, think to yourself: maybe there is ANOTHER side to things. As harsh as my comments may be, they are all well thought out(with at least two sides to each case analyzed). Maybe you haven't seen the world the way I have, or maybe you are an ostrich who likes to bury your head in the sand and think everything is just hunky dorry. Nevertheless, you peops need to think more.

You asked for me to find where in your post you implied that it was intentional, ie not an accident. I went back and found it for ya, it wasn't hard.

To say that you know you would never make a mistake, no matter what kind of silly mistake it might be, is scary!

Never say never, it's comments like that which have a odd way of coming back to bite you in the rear, karma is a b!tch...

Yes. It's the ones that are so cocky as to think that they won't ever screw up that are scary. Remember the Titanic? Like I said, HotMamma, I was rooting for ya but you are just too much!

Originally Posted by HotMamaPilot
Taking off on a runway with no lights, however, (IMHO) is NO accident

Yah. I'm sure the FO wanted to live without a leg and be brain damaged for the rest of his life so he purposefully took off on the wrong runway.

Like I said, y'all complain that you aren't paid enough because of the awesome responsibility of conveying people safely from Point A to Point B, but the flip side of that is you have responsibility to accomplish that. If you don't, then you should be held accountable. You/I am not paid to make mistakes.

My friends were at the wedding of the couple killed on that plane that were headed on their honeymoon, and deserve/expect nothing less.

If you want the luxury of being able to make a "mistake" and not be held accountable, don't fly pax.

Merry Christmas.

Right, they purposely took of on a wrong runway. You are so cocky, I don’t know what you are trying to prove.

:rolleyes:


Another reason to add to your list of why pilots are underpaid!

Freaking lawyers! I swear!

My prayers for him and his family during this Christmas season!

***deleted by Admin***

Wow, profanity, name calling and physical threats all in one post.

I'm not taking sides, but the many posts on this thread come close to violating the forum's TOS, with a few already having gone over the line.