Law Suit Launched Over Last Week’s Miami Red Air Crash

Dominican carrier RED Air is facing a lawsuit with several passengers injured during a crash landing at Miami International Airport last week alleging the jet had known problems with its landing gear. A RED Air MD-82 spectacularly skidded off the runway after landing in Miami on June 21 following a confirmed landing gear malfunction. The plaintiff’s lawyers say the crash landing was preventable and should not have happened.

The lawsuit alleges Red Air crash landing was preventable

The Miami Herald is reporting that four passengers, Tamar Kalach, Sarkis Okhdjian, Anabella Perez, and Camila Destefano, are alleging the crash caused them “fractured bones, orthopedic injuries, spine damage, and psychological injuries.” One hundred and forty people were onboard the flight from Santo Domingo (SDQ) and Miami (MIA) last Tuesday.

“The airplane experienced a collapse of the left main landing gear during landing on runway nine, departed the runway, and came to rest in a grassy area between runway nine and 30​. A post-crash fire on the right side of the airplane followed the runway excursion,” says an NTSB statement.

Passengers feared an explosion

There were no fatalities, and the Miami Herald reports just three injuries. One of the injured appears to be Anabella Perez, 15, who told another Miami media outlet she thought the plane would explode. After evacuating the jet via an emergency slide, she said:

“I was just dragging myself with my hands, trying to drag myself through the grass, just trying to get away from the plane, because I was like, a few feet away from it since I fell from it.” The MD82 didn’t explode, but Ms Perez suffered a torn ACL and meniscus and fractured her tibia.

On June 28, Miami-based Goldberg & Rosen filed a lawsuit on behalf of the four passengers. Attorney Kent Burlington said the crash landing was preventable, and RED Air needed to be held accountable. “We have seen firsthand the severity of their injuries and trauma,” he told the Miami Herald. “The hard, violent landing and landing gear failure should not have occurred on this commercial flight.”

The complaint alleges RED Air failed to take actions to evacuate passengers in a timely and safe manner. Further, the complaint claims “chaos broke out as the terrified passengers rushed to free themselves through an exit door.”

Not a great start for the fledgling airline

The now written-off aircraft involved in the incident was a 31-and-a-half-year-old McDonnell Douglas MD-82 that went to RED Air in February 2021 after a history of flying for American Airlines and, more recently, Venezuala-based LASER Airlines. This week’s lawsuit alleges the plane has been involved in previous incidents involving its landing gear “breaking, cracking, not extending, structurally failing, or not functioning properly.” The lawsuit also alleges RED Air’s pilots lacked suitable skills and experience. Simple Flying doesn’t claim that the allegations are true.

RED Air only began flying out of the Dominican Republic in early 2021. Airline database planespotters.net reveals it has two more MD-82s in its fleet, HI1066 and HI1069, both aged in their early 30s. The airline’s sole route is SDQ – MIA which it services several times a day. However, since the June 21 crash, both the RED Air’s jets have stayed firmly on the ground in Miami.

RED Air hasn’t commented publicly on this week’s lawsuit but had said it had “absolute solidarity with the passengers and crew of the aircraft” following last week’s crash landing.

Source: Miami Herald