Billings, MontanaBillings Aviation Accident
Billings Aviation Accident Lawyers: Plane Crashes, Helicopter and Air Ambulance Accidents Near Billings Logan International Airport
Boland Aarab PLLP.
If you were hurt, or lost a family member, in a small-plane, helicopter or air ambulance crash near Billings, you may have claims against the operator, the pilot, a maintenance shop or a manufacturer. The NTSB investigates, but it does not represent your family and its final report cannot be used in court. You generally have 3 years to file.
Hurt in an aircraft accident, or lost someone in a crash? Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
What aviation activity is there around Billings?
More than most Montanans realize. Billings is the air hub for south-central Montana and northern Wyoming, and several kinds of flying share the same airspace.
- Billings Logan International Airport (BIL) sits on top of the Rimrocks, about two miles northwest of downtown. It has three runways, the longest over 10,000 feet, and handles airline, cargo, charter and private flights.
- Flight training. Rocky Mountain College conducts its flight training at its Flight Operations facility at Billings Logan, in what the college describes as “Class C airspace with full radar,” under FAA Part 141 (Rocky Mountain College). Student pilots, instructors, private pilots and airliners all work the same pattern.
- Air ambulances. Billings Clinic operates MedFlight, with fixed-wing and helicopter service (Billings Clinic). St. Vincent’s H.E.L.P. Flight program has flown seriously ill and injured patients since 1979 (Billings Logan International Airport). Those flights run day and night, in winter, into rural strips and highway scenes across eastern Montana and northern Wyoming.
- Mountain flying. The Beartooth, Crazy and Bighorn mountains are within easy reach of Billings, and so are the mountain wave, turbulence and fast-changing weather that go with them.
- Agricultural and utility work across the Yellowstone Valley, where low-level flying brings wire strikes and ground injuries into play.
The Rims themselves are a factor. An aircraft departing or arriving at an airport on a bluff above a city has little room for an engine failure at low altitude, and a crash may injure people on the ground as well as those aboard.
What happens after an aviation accident near Billings?
The operator must notify the National Transportation Safety Board right away (49 C.F.R. § 830.5). The NTSB leads the investigation and usually names the operator, the aircraft and engine manufacturers and the FAA as “parties” to help it. Injured people and families are not parties, and no party representative may represent claimants (49 C.F.R. § 831.11). That means the companies that may later be defendants help examine the wreckage, and you do not.
Your own investigation should start while the NTSB’s is still underway. That means preservation letters to the operator, the maintenance shop, the fixed-base operator that fueled the aircraft and the airport; requests for radar and air traffic control data; and the pilot’s training and duty records. When the NTSB releases the wreckage, it can be moved or salvaged.
If the case is filed in state court, a crash in Yellowstone County goes to the Thirteenth Judicial District Court at the Yellowstone County Courthouse, 217 North 27th Street (§ 3-5-101, MCA). Aviation cases often end up in federal court instead, because operators and manufacturers are from other states or because the United States is involved. In this region, that means the Billings Division of the U.S. District Court, at the James F. Battin Federal Courthouse, 2601 2nd Avenue North. The Billings Division covers Yellowstone County and twenty-one other south-central and eastern Montana counties (D. Mont. Local Rules), so a crash in the Beartooths, the Bull Mountains or the Powder River country may land in the same courthouse.
Who can be responsible for a crash near Billings?
Depending on the facts: the pilot and the pilot’s employer; the charter, air ambulance, flight school or aircraft owner; the shop that inspected or repaired the aircraft; the manufacturer of the aircraft, engine or a part; a fuel supplier; and, where air traffic controllers or other federal employees were negligent, the United States. Montana apportions fault among everyone responsible (§ 27-1-703, MCA).
Montana law that applies
- NTSB reports: no part of a Board accident report may be admitted or used in a civil damages case (49 U.S.C. § 1154(b)). Factual reports are treated differently (49 C.F.R. § 835.2).
- GARA: the General Aviation Revitalization Act generally bars claims against a general aviation manufacturer 18 years after delivery, with exceptions, including for patients aboard for medical or emergency treatment. It does not protect operators, pilots or maintenance shops.
- Deadlines: 3 years for most injury and wrongful-death claims (§ 27-2-204, MCA); 2 years to present a claim against the United States (28 U.S.C. § 2401(b)).
- Damages include future medical care, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering and, in a death case, wrongful death and survival damages (§§ 27-1-513, 27-1-501, MCA).
Our Montana aviation accident page explains the NTSB process and GARA’s exceptions in more detail.
Why hire a Great Falls firm for a Billings case?
Because an aviation case is usually a federal-court case against out-of-state companies, and what matters is experience in that court and the willingness to try the case. We are based in Great Falls and handle cases statewide. Our attorneys travel to Billings for depositions, inspections, hearings and trial, and our firm has tried jury trials in Yellowstone County. We work with qualified aviation experts where the facts call for it. We do not have a Billings office.
The Boland Aarab Way
- We know federal court. Our attorneys have handled more than 40 cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana over nine years, and Samir Aarab has argued twice before the Ninth Circuit.
- We stand with families. We obtained a $550,000 settlement for the estate in a civil-rights and wrongful-death case (Estate of Alexander v. Cascade County).
- We try cases. More than a dozen jury trials, in Cascade, Phillips, Meagher and Yellowstone Counties, and more than 4,000 hours in the courtroom.
- We protect verdicts. Our appellate record reaches back to 1977.
Related Billings pages: wrongful death · burn injury · all Billings personal injury cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use the NTSB’s report on a crash near Billings Logan in my lawsuit? Not the Board’s final report or probable-cause finding (49 U.S.C. § 1154(b)). The case has to be proven with independent evidence and expert testimony.
My family member was a patient on an air ambulance out of Billings. Does GARA block a claim? Not against the operator, and GARA has an exception for people aboard for medical or emergency treatment. The details depend on the aircraft and the facts.
Which court would hear a plane crash case from the Beartooths? Often the federal court’s Billings Division, which covers Yellowstone, Carbon, Stillwater, Park and other surrounding counties, when the parties are from different states or the United States is involved.
What if air traffic control played a role? A claim against the United States must first be presented to the agency in writing within 2 years (28 U.S.C. § 2401(b)).
A student pilot crashed near Billings. Who can be responsible? Depending on the facts, the flight school or operator, the instructor, the maintenance shop and the manufacturer. Training records and maintenance logs are key evidence.
Talk to a Billings Aviation Accident Lawyer
Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
Our attorneys: Caitlin Boland Aarab · Samir F. Aarab
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
