Jury awards $116 million for death of passenger in doorless helicopter crash

A jury has awarded $116 million to the family of one of the five people killed in a doorless helicopter that crashed and plunged into a New York river, leaving passengers trapped in their safety harnesses.

The verdict came Thursday in the trial over the death of Trevor Cadigan, who was 26 when he boarded the doomed flight in March 2018.

It was, family attorney Gary C. Robb said Friday, “a death trap.”

“They simply misled the public about the emergency exit capability” of the harnesses, which were store-bought fall protection equipment designed for construction workers, not aviation use, he said.

Messages seeking comment were sent Friday to attorneys for the companies jurors faulted for his death.

The jury decided that 42% of the fault was with FlyNYON, which arranged the flight, and 38% with Liberty Helicopters, which owned the helicopter and provided the pilot. Jurors awarded 20 percent of the liability to Dart Aerospace, which made a flotation device that malfunctioned in the crash.

The helicopter plunged into the East River after a passenger caught a floor-mounted fuel shutoff switch and shut down the engine, federal investigators found. The aircraft began to sink within seconds.

The pilot, who was wearing a seat belt, managed to free himself and survived. But the five passengers struggled in vain to free themselves from their harnesses, the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation found.

All five died. They were Cadigan; Brian McDaniel, 26; Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29 years old; Tristan Hill, 29; and Daniel Thompson, 34.

Cadigan, a journalist, had recently moved to New York from Dallas and was enjoying a visit from his childhood friend McDaniel, a Dallas firefighter.

The NTSB largely blamed FlyNYON, saying it installed hard-to-escape harnesses and exploited a regulatory loophole to avoid having to meet safety requirements that would apply to tourist flights.

FlyNYON promoted “sneaker selfies” — pictures of passengers’ feet dangling above lower Manhattan — but told employees to avoid using terms like “air tour” or “sightseeing excursion” so the company could maintain a certification with less stringent safety standards, investigators said. The company obtained the certification through an exemption for activities such as news gathering, commercial photography and filming.

In statements to the NTSB, FlyNYON faulted the helicopter’s design and flotation system, which failed to keep the aircraft upright. DART Aerospace, for its part, suggested that the pilot did not use the correct system. The pilot told the NTSB that the passengers had a safety briefing before the flight and were told how to remove themselves from the restraints.

After the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily halted flight doors with close seats. Flights later resumed with requirements for restrictions that can be released in a single action.

Robb said Cadigan’s parents sued in hopes of stopping the doorless flights.

His father, Dallas broadcast journalist Jerry Cadigan, died in July in St. Louis, while visiting relatives during a break in the roughly three-month trial in Manhattan.

“He didn’t see the final path to justice,” Robb said, “but he knew it was coming.”

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