Australia family hurt in helicopter crash suing Las Vegas firm

This representation provided by Boulder City communications manager Lisa LaPlante shows a Grand Canyon circuit chopper aft a Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022, clang described arsenic a "hard landing" astatine Boulder City Municipal Airport. Photo by Lisa LaPlante/Boulder City via AP

Four household members from Australia who were injured during a crash-landing of a sightseeing chopper successful Southern Nevada successful December person filed a suit successful the U.S. seeking much than $400,000 successful damages from the circuit operator.

Las Vegas-based Papillon Grand Canyon Tours and genitor institution Papillon Airways Inc. are accused of negligence and liability successful the ailment filed Monday successful Nevada authorities tribunal successful Las Vegas.

Company officials and an lawyer who has represented it successful tribunal successful the past did not instantly respond Tuesday and Wednesday to emails from The Associated Press.

Local exigency responders and the National Transportation Safety Board characterized the Dec. 27 clang astatine Boulder City Municipal Airport as a “hard landing,” portion the Federal Aviation Administration called it a clang portion landing. Officials said 7 radical were injured.

An NTSB preliminary report said the landing skids of the Airbus EC130 T2 collapsed and the process roar deed the ground, “resulting successful important damage.” A photograph by a Boulder City authoritative posted connected Facebook showed the reddish chopper upright successful a level godforsaken area. There were nary reports of a fire. The aviator was not identified.

Cedomir Rakic and Amy Rakic and their children, ages 19 and 17, allege successful the civilian ailment that they suffered superior spine injuries including fractures, caput injuries and trauma owed to "an in-flight nonaccomplishment of control" by the aviator portion landing. The household lives successful Barwon Heads, adjacent Melbourne, Australia.

“This household came to Las Vegas for a vacation vacation, and they near with life-altering injuries," said Brittany Sanders Robb, lawyer for the family. Robb said the suit "seeks answers and accountability" from a institution that she alleged “has a past of ill-fated chopper flights involving its sight-seeing tours.”

A Papillon craft was progressive successful a February 2018 crash that killed 3 British tourists and critically injured 4 radical connected tribal onshore successful the Grand Canyon successful Arizona. Robb's firm, based successful Kansas City, Missouri, besides was progressive successful a suit that resulted successful a $38 cardinal outgo to a pistillate who was the lone subsister of a Grand Canyon tour crash successful August 2001 that killed six people, including the woman's hubby and the pilot.

In that case, a parent of 2 from Brooklyn, New York, suffered a breached back, burns implicit 80% of her assemblage and had some legs amputated aft the clang connected a cliff adjacent Meadview, Arizona.

The December clang occurred aft a 25-minute formation that FlightAware, an aerial postulation database, tracked from the Grand Canyon adjacent Kingman, Arizona, to the Boulder City airport. Boulder City is simply a 30-minute thrust from downtown Las Vegas.