I have a ten page report due in two weeks about the legal issues surrounding the crash of AA1420 in Little Rock, AR. If anybody knows any websites that could help me with this or if you have ideas of your own, please post them here. I am open to any suggestions. These issues can concern the flight itself, the pilots, the plane, the weather, the controller, and the aftermath. Any help is appreciated.

FlyMKG

National Geographic channel did an awesome show on the crash It was tv around 5-8 months ago. It basically said that the pilots were overworked and in a hurry to land. There was 2 storm fronts that came thru the second one is which one that did them in and came in very fast. Try doing a search on National's web site for the show to buy a copy of it.

Check the NTSB website, and websites as to airline accidents. Do a Yahoo/Google search for these websites. This accident shoud be one with a number of web refrences due to it's circumstances.

What kind of legal issues? Legal issues causing or contributing to the crash? Legal issues arrising from the crash? The legal basis on which American was sued, or...?

In addition to the NTSB report (which, it is important to note but I'm not sure this would be relevent in your case, would not be admissable as evidence in a lawsuit agaist American)

If you have access to LexisNexis through your college/university library, you may want to look at the cases where American was sued as a result (if you don't and are interested, email me and I may be able to provide copies of the text):

1. Sattari v. Am. Airlines (in Re Air Disaster at Little Rock), MDL DOCKET NO. 99-1308, Docket No. 4:99CV458HW , UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS, WESTERN DIVISION , 125 F. Supp. 2d 357; 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18405, December 20, 2000, Decided

2. Rustenhaven v. Am. Airlines Inc. (In re Aircraft Accident at Little Rock), No. 03-1073 , UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT , 351 F.3d 874; 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 25275; 63 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. (Callaghan) 203, September 8, 2003, Submitted, December 16, 2003, Filed, Rehearing denied by Steering Comm. v. Am. Airlines, Inc. (In re Aircraft Accident at Little Rock), 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 1677 (8th Cir. Ark., Feb. 4, 2004)

3. Lloyd v. Am. Airlines (in Re Air Crash at Little Rock Ark.), No. 01-1047 , UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT , 291 F.3d 503; 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 10026; 59 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. (Callaghan) 236; 196 A.L.R. Fed. 695, October 15, 2001, Submitted, May 29, 2002, Filed, Writ of certiorari denied: Lloyd v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 2002 U.S. LEXIS 7815 (U.S. Oct. 21, 2002). [Warsaw Convention applicaion, liability for psychological damage]

4. Chu v. Am. Airlines, Inc., No. 01-2231EA, UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT, 285 F.3d 756; 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 9322, January 17, 2002, Submitted, March 28, 2002, Filed, Chu v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 8351 (8th Cir. Ark., May 1, 2002).

... etc. Actually, there's not much in the way of interesting case law, especially compared to other similar incidents, for the crash of flight 1420 besides the minor dispute over the application of the Warsaw convention to one pax as far as damages were concerned (and even that wasn't too out of the norm from what little I've seen)

Lincoln

Quoting Lincoln (Reply 3): What kind of legal issues? Legal issues causing or contributing to the crash? Legal issues arrising from the crash? The legal basis on which American was sued, or...?

Any and all of those. I did a report on the crash in an earlier class but that pretty much just involved the crash itself. I know about the crew duty time issue and the weather issues and such. I was just wondering if anyone could delve into the underlying legal issues surrounding these facts.

FlyMKG

[Edited 2005-03-21 06:08:06]

Note to self don't hit the post button twice.

FlyMKG

[Edited 2005-03-21 06:07:41]

Is there anything on www.aviation-safety.net

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pilot error most likely. from what I understand the pilot was flying all day long and hurried to his final destination. I do not know for sure.