Eleven US passengers
who survived an Aeromexico crash in the northern Mexican state of Durango on July 31 have filed lawsuits against the airline in Chicago on Monday, according to a statement released by Chicago-based attorneys Corboy & Demetrio.
The Mexico City-bound jet crashed into a scrubland area near the runway, shortly after the take-off , during what passengers have described as strong winds, hail, and rain . All 103 passengers and the crew survived the crash by evacuating the plane before it caught fire.
At least 65 passengers aboard the Aeromexico Flight 2341 were US citizens , including several residents from the Chicago area.
“All the people on this flight have the right to know exactly what caused the plane to crash . A plane just doesn’t drop from the sky because it’s raining hard,” said Corboy & Demetrio co-founder Thomas A. Demetrio.
Corboy & Demetrio
said it has filed six separate lawsuits on behalf of 11 passengers with the Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois.
Francis Patrick Murphy,
another partner at the firm , said weather , to some extent, is always a factor in flight operations.
“However, safe flight operations depend on how the airline and its pilots monitor, respond to and correct for severe weather conditions, both in the pre-flight and inter-flight decision-making process, in order to avoid a mishap,” Murphy said.
On Monday, Luis Gerardo Fonseca , the director of Mexico’s civil aviation agency, said that the causes of the crash were still being investigated .
The first officer and the two flight attendants have already given their declarations as part of the investigation, he said. Investigators are waiting to interview the captain , who is still in hospital , Fonseca said.
Aeromexico
did not return requests for comment.
gm
