Any legals? DH Fatal accident?

There's always one isn't there?

And as others have said you should be proud of how you've come through this traumatic event OP.

Are you entitled to any sort of widows pension from the company

@Doggonames

Hence why I said it doesn’t seem to be the ops one. I don’t remember which one it was but both had pilot issues with both the pilots. But that’s besides the point now tbh. Whatever happened happened.

Understood and agreed...I think the important thing to be aware of, if people are maybe trying to compare this with the helicopter legal case, is that a rated, qualified, "co-pilot"/"first officer" actually at work in the cockpit doesn't have the same status as a passenger simply because he's not the one actually handling the aircraft.

As for comp, very much one for a specialist attorney/lawyer...

No words

What a foul comment. She’s not trying to financially gain. She’s wondering if she should have been compensated for the significant financial loss (not to mention emotional trauma and grief) she experienced as a result of his death.

I’m so terribly sorry for your loss.

Assessing whether you might have had a claim is hard to do in retrospect. There are a lot of questions that it might not now be possible to answer. In general a company is responsible for the actions of their employees which might have meant they were responsible in this situation, but that can be affected by many variables.

I don’t know if it’s definitely too late for you to pursue a claim. In the UK you would be out of time but the laws in America are different and I don’t know what the time limits are. You could look into this. Any litigation would be very expensive, however - something to consider.

It sounds like you made the best decisions available to you at the time. Don’t beat yourself up about the choices you made under incredible duress. You did the best you could with the knowledge you had at the time.

There is no right way to handle such loss.

You may have got more money but if it was a large organisation, it would have also meant prolonging the trauma and fighting it to the bitter end. You may have ended up much worse off with legal fees and the inability emotionally move on.

i honestly don’t know much about flying. But I read one of the crashes I mentioned the pilots were joking about and had an unsuitable attitude or words to that effect. Hence why I said it doesn’t seem to be the ops one. I don’t remember which one it was but both had pilot issues with both the pilots. But that’s besides the point now tbh. Whatever happened happened.

yeah I had thought there’s two or so pilots that are responsible for various reasons.

Sorry for your loss.

Such an unnecessary comment

Regarding the recent judgement for $100 million for plane crash - that does not mean that amount will be paid out - especially if it is a Limited Liability Company is involved or the company simply doesn't have the money - bankruptcy will be declared - so after that there wouldn't be any pay out.

I googled that one out curiosity and it seems both pilots were American and it was the fault of both of them. Another one also popped up but I can’t remember where it was in America but it was also the fault of both pilots. So must not be either of them.

Without wishing to comment on whatever tragic accident that led to the OP it's maybe worth being aware that these days on multi-pilot/multi-crew aircraft it's more and more about crew responsibility, the non-handling pilot doesn't get a free ride.

It's really rare to see a report for an accident involving two rated pilots on a flight deck where only one pilot shoulders absolutely all the blame and the other occupant is totally absolved; the role of the none flying pilot is to some extent that of monitoring the flying pilot and stopping the flying pilot screwing up.

You’ve sorted it out now so don’t try to financially gain from your husbands death

I guess you have been; reading the daily mail today.

I googled out of curiosity too, and could only find that crash in America and the ages matched.

regardless, my sympathies to the OP of course, but the nature of the crash may impact payouts.

The 10k does sound like death in service benefit rather than compensation for liability.

Had you claimed on a liability basis you may well have got compensation too but the airline was hardly going to suggest that to you. It probably sat tight and counted down to limitation.

Limitation has likely long passed. (I'm a UK lawyer so not sure about US statutes but seems very unlikely a claim would still be within time. ) I presume there were no infant children of the marriage? They would have a separate right to claim and Limitation would only start running from their adulthood.

Very occasionally there are exceptions to the strict Limitation laws (again I'm talking about UK law and assuming other countries are similar) such as Limitation only running from the date knowledge of the right to claim arose. An example could be adults who only experienced a memory of childhood sex abuse in middle age (there is case law on this). But unfortunately choosing not to take independent legal advice at the time wouldn't qualify.

I'm sorry OP. It must have been such an awfully hard experience for you, both at the time and in the years afterwards.

I googled that one out curiosity and it seems both pilots were American and it was the fault of both of them. Another one also popped up but I can’t remember where it was in America but it was also the fault of both pilots. So must not be either of them.

it could be a death in service benefit, but I always thought that would be more. If it was compensation it would be unlikely to get more as usually if you accept the payout you forfeit the right to go back and say more. But if you want to op, I would echo others and recommend a special lawyer.

Another support for would DH place work have life cover / death in service benefit? Normally this is a few mulitples of salary....

You would have to fin a lawyer willing to take the claim on a no win no fee basis.
The pilots third party insurance would be liable, as a passenger there may be a claim if your husband was a pilot or club member a disclaimer may be relevant.

Definitely worth getting information together and asking.

Ideally yes. But you were doing your best at a very tough time so don't be hard on yourself.

10K??? That's outrageous, I used to deal with pilot's insurance and they should ALL be insured. I paid out a million for one claim.
I'd be asking this company what happened to the insurance pay out because you clearly didn't get it. I worked in insurance 20 years ago and we were regularly paying out even then for pilot deaths.
I'm so sorry. You need to do some investigations and maybe speak to a solicitor about your rights this far along.

Wrongful death lawsuits in the USA are VERY lucrative which is why insurance is so expensive there!

As many said, contact a no win/no fee attorney in the US state where you lived or where the accident happened. The statute of limitations may bar bringing action this late date but $10,000 is very low, normally they would offer 10x annual earnings as a start and arguments would be for payment of total earnings for life plus interest, etc - unless there was something very peculiar, he was partially at fault, or they just thought they could get away with it. Usually a US company will pay $10,000 just to get rid of a lawsuit so even if you can't really get anything the no win/no fee lawyer might file an action anyway to get the $10,000 again - usually he gets 1/3 so he gets $3333.33 and you get $6666.66 for the hour it takes to fill in a standard lawsuit form. (I've worked both sides of these filings in the USA).
Sorry for your loss.

I do wonder how many of these crazy payout figures we hear of in the US actually happen (ones which don’t involve celebrities etc.)