Any legals? DH Fatal accident?

[BringMeSunshine48]

In 2004 my DH was killed in an aviation accident whilst working. He was co pilot. The accident was the fault of the Pilot in control. He also died.

It happened in USA. (We were out there for DH work)

I received a small payout from the company of around 10k.

I struggled as a widow financially for years after.

Recently, people have asked why I didn't claim for compensation. It's obviously too late now I guess, but the company is still operational.

I was in my 20's at the time and in a complete mess as my world imploded around me. Nobody even mentioned this was an option and I wasn't aware at the time.

Should I have received compensation more than I received?

It would have hugely helped me over the years as when I returned to the UK as I had to get a job very quickly and try and run our home alone/buy a car etc.

It's all too late now, and irrelevant, but it has left me wondering if I should have received more than I did. Does anyone else know?

sorry for your loss @BringMeSunshine48

@AcrossthePond55

My husband works in a sort of related industry and there have been a handful of deaths over the decades he has been there and I’ve known multiple payouts of much higher than £10k.

@WowIlikereallyhateyou I thought the same to.

That story isn't just in the daily mail, I saw it on the front page of the BBC first thing this morning. OP herself has said that's why it's on her mind, which is very understandable.

Really sorry you had to go through that op.

Ignore people implying you've got $$ in your eyes. Your loss and everything you had to deal with in the fall out is not rejected in your 10k and is unjust. Wondering if you can rebalance that is a reasonable question.

Rejected - reflected!

I am so so sorry, I work in aviation and so does my partner. Not sure about legal side but I hope you got plenty of help with the emotional side of things . When you work in aviation you prep for these events but never ever expect them. Sending love to you

It triggered what I often think about. I wasn't expecting millions though 😂I managed financially, just about. I have my health and was lucky to meet and marry a lovely man years later so that's what's important

Wow.
I've explained I'm not trying to claim anything now, I just wondered if I should have been entitled to compensation back then to help me financially after the loss of my husband.
I an not trying to financially gain from my DH death. How vile.

My first DH also died in an air accident, though it wasn't part of his work. Four friends out for a day's fun flying in a small single-engine plane ran into a storm cell and the pilot's inexperience in flying in snow led him to overbank the plane and the wings gave way. My DH was not the pilot. However, I received a payout from his company of four times his salary, which makes me wonder why your payout was so low when presumably he was on company business. I also got a widow's pension, which continued after I remarried.

I think you should have got more. The company would have had insurance.

I wonder if the payout was an automatic one from a statutory scheme, and that you’d have remained entitled to make a claim.

Yes, that's what I was saying.

I've known them to be in the 6 to 7 figures for a 100% 'no employee fault' fatality settlement. Maybe a bit less if the employee was determined to be 'at fault' for a certain percentage. But 10K for a fatality is ridiculous unless somehow the carrier or the employer 'finagled' OP's DH to be at fault in some way.

I was involved more with injured workers than fatalities. And I've seen some dirty shit pulled in the past by employers and WC carriers trying to finagle a high percentage of employee fault. Even when it was damned obvious to a non-expert like me that they were trying to pull a fast one.

Obvs, I'm not saying OP's DH was at fault in any way.

Oh I see, I apologise, I thought you meant it was high, I should have reread! In my (little) experience it seems very low.

I've just read a story earlier today where the British parents of a British man who died in a tourist helicopter crash in the US have received £75m in compensation, personally I think that's pretty obscene and too far the other way, I can't possibly see how losing a grown, married son requires the parents to be compensated to the tune of £75m.

Obviously you were in no fit state to fight for a fair and reasonable level of compensation, its a shame there was nobody around you at the time willing to help and guide you with that.

So sorry to hear that, I hope you're doing well now 🙏
The pension I get is....wait for this...£2.58 a month. He was 29, and so this is all they pay me, not even a lump sum.
My DH was recently qualified as a HPilot and we hadn't been in the US all that long. Luckily we had life insurance and so the mortgage on our UK home was paid off. I got bits of money here and there, but nothing substantial. I found a full time job in the UK and had to go back to work 4 weeks after the funeral. Looking back I've no idea how I got through everything. Sometimes it all feel like it happened in a different lifetime.

Agreed, it's a ludicrous amount!
I wish I'd just had enough to help me a bit though. To buy a car, get settled and not feel so under pressure to have to get back to work. Although looking back, that job saved me from insanity and I made lifelong friends.

What an awful tragedy for you @BringMeSunshine48. I'm pleased you managed to carve a good life for yourself after such an awful time. You should be proud of yourself and stop doubting how you handled legal issues during such a challenging time.