Friday, November 10, 2006

MT PLEASANT, USA: One of the largest plaintiffs’ aviation litigation firms in the world, Motley Rice LLC, has announced that it has filed suit against Colombian-based West Caribbean Airways, as well as US-based companies MK Aviation (as well as its owner and its aliases), and others on behalf of the family of several passengers who died in the crash of West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, which took place on August 16, 2005 in a mountainous region in northwest Venezuela.

The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, was en route from Panama City, Panama to Fort de France, Martinique at the time of the crash. According to accident reports, after a 7,000 feet-per-minute dive, the plane crashed into a field in the western state of Zulia, Venezuela. All 160 passengers and crew were killed. The death toll of the crash makes it one of the deadliest of 2005, worldwide, and the second worst crash ever involving an MD-80. West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 is the 20th loss of an MD-80, since the aircraft was brought into service in 1980 and the deadliest air disaster in the history of Venezuela.

According to the complaint, West Caribbean Airways had recently leased the aircraft from defendant MK Aviation, Inc., a Nevada company with operations in the United States. Prior to MK Aviation’s purchase, the aircraft had sat in desert storage in California for nearly four years –accumulating more than 48,000 hours and 23,000 cycles – thus requiring expensive parts and highly trained technicians to ensure its return to airworthiness. However, according to the lawsuit, West Caribbean, which had suffered a prior airline disaster in March 2005, was under dire financial stress. The company had been cited by the Columbian Civil Aviation Authority (Aerocivil) with 14 “very serious violations to aviation safety.” Because of these infractions, Aerocivil had placed a hefty fine on the airline. This fine was then reduced due to the airline’s poor financial condition.

Yet, despite allegedly knowing about the financial stress of West Caribbean and the safety violations and suspended operations, defendant MK Aviation leased the aircraft to the airline. That following May, the Columbian Ports and Transportation Supervision Department imposed an injunction on West Caribbean, based on its poor financial condition. According to the complaint, this injunction was based on an evaluation of West Caribbean’s financial statements that diagnosed an inevitable business failure. Nevertheless, it is alleged that West Caribbean willfully, wantonly and recklessly continued to fly its dangerous aircraft, and failed to provide the proper training or rest for its crews, needlessly risking the lives of every passenger that boarded its planes. In addition, the lawsuit claims that West Caribbean circulated lists soliciting desired “black market” parts, unregistered and unapproved, that render an aircraft unairworthy, just in order to keep the plane flying.

Furthermore, two Florida-based companies, Newvac Corporation and Go 2 Galaxy Inc., and its principal, Jacques Cimetier, contracted with West Caribbean to provide air travel for passengers between Martinique and Panama. In May 2005, these two companies submitted a request to the government of France seeking approval for West Caribbean to operate the flights. As a precondition, the companies had to demonstrate that the aircraft was properly insured. However, West Caribbean’s insurance lapsed in July 2005.

On August 16, 2005, the inevitable happened. Flight 708 from Panama to Martinique crashed in Venezuela, killing all 160 passengers and crew.

“We believe the defendants, including those with operations in the US, took advantage of US laws to form a deadly loophole carrier. Unless we act to hold these parties accountable, we will see this disaster repeated by encouraging loophole international passenger service,” said Motley Rice attorney Mary Schiavo. “Here we have Nevada corporations with agents and offices in Florida, Texas and California, buying and leasing old aircraft, to an airline which because of safety lapses was grounded. It even lost its insurance. Despite these dangerous conditions, two US companies contracted with that grounded uninsured carrier to fly passengers in other countries. We seek to hold them accountable under the very same US laws we believe they used and abused to run this deadly loophole airline.”

“With the number of US aircraft retiring from service, we must hold these companies accountable for their actions, or the carnage will continue,” said Motley Rice aviation attorney and former commercial airline captain, Don McCune. “I have flown old aircraft, which under US regulation, were meticulously inspected and maintained. Without accountability, companies like these will continue to take our oldest aircraft from our scrap heaps, farm them out to marginal carriers, and reap huge profits.”

This case was filed in US District Court, Southern District of Florida and included the following defendants: West Caribbean Airways, The Aeronautics of Astronautics Services, USA, Inc., MK Aviation, MK Leasing, MKA Capital, Mordechay Kraselnick, also known as Mory Kraselnick, also known as Mordechai Kraselnick, Globe Trotters de Riviere Salee Travel, Samir Cvrk, Valerie Cvrk, Newvac Corporation, Go 2 Galaxy, Inc., Jacques Cimetier, Asegeuradoro Colseguros, S.A., and Sancom Resources Recovery, Inc.

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