Flight Training Malpractice Lawsuit Thrown Out

Photo by Wikipedia, Public Domain

A recent Pennsylvania lawsuit that threatened to hold flight schools liable for their training failures was dismissed by the state's superior court. The suit was brought about from a 2018 fatal accident that the plaintiffs contended was caused by the failure of the flight school and its CFIs to adequately train the pilot on the proper use of the Cirrus Aircraft Parachute System (CAPS). Evidence showed that the pilot, James Durkin, failed to activate CAPS with the resulting crash on April 18, 2018, taking the lives of the pilot and his passenger, Stephen Grady.

Many of those involved in training, including national flight schools and independent CFIs, were on edge and waiting for a ruling on this court case. The implications that a flight school or CFI could be held liable for what could be termed "Educational Malpractice" sent ripples throughout the industry.

While this ruling, which ultimately was upheld by the Pennsylvania Superior Court in March, adopted the lower court's opinion, dismissing the case stating, "Pennsylvania courts have not permitted cases of negligence resulting from alleged educational malpractice to persist."

Patricia Grady, the husband of the passenger on the ill-fated flight, has filed a petition that would allow an appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. It is expected to take a couple of months for the Supreme Court to make their ruling on this petition for appeal.

In the meantime, there has been a tempered collective sigh of relief for those in the pilot training business and CFIs across the country. While this may not stop similar lawsuits against flight schools and their employees, at least for now, those in the flight training business can take comfort in the decisions that have been handed down so far by the courts and legal system.

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Sam WinerAuthor

Sam has his commercial fixed wing and rotorcraft rating, with just under 1,000 hours of total time. He owned a helicopter flight school in the Chicago area for over 11 years and worked as a pilot for radio traffic reporting services in the Chicago market. In addition, Sam has worked in the fast-paced radio news environment as a news anchor and traffic reporter in the Chicago, Milwaukee and Salt Lake City markets. His informative and humorous writing style, coupled with decades of experience in the aviation world, will provide easy reading with timely topics for the beginning aviator all the way up to the ATP professional.