Today's Evil Beet Gossip

Travis Barker Holds Pilots Accountable

I’m confused.  Travis Barker filed a lawsuit yesterday as a result of the September plane crash that he survived.  He and his deceased bodyguard’s mother are suing Clay Lacy Aviation, Global Executive Aviation, Inter Travel and Services, Goodyear Tire and Rubber and Bombardier Inc.  Apparently the brakes and tires on the plane were defective.  I understand suing for equipment failure.  But the lawsuit also states the pilots, who did not survive, were negligent in their decision to abort takeoff when the tires failed.

The suit claims “The pilots were either poorly trained and/or failed to follow their training.  The pilots’ decision was a breach of their duty owed to the passengers onboard and was a substantial factor in causing the crash and resultant injuries and deaths.”

This is where my confusion comes in.  If a pilot is preparing for takeoff and realizes that there is something wrong with the tires, wouldn’t not taking off be the thing to do?  Obviously, since four people died, it wasn’t the right choice.  I just can’t imagine that landing without gear is a great option either.

34 CommentsLeave a comment

  • After you reach the point where you are too fast to stop in the runway left, it is better to take off and burn fuel to minimize fire danger. You can also land slower than the speed they were trying to stop from, and not have the fence and other obstructions to hit in the attempt.

  • i dunno about lear jets, but with the other commercial crafts, once you hit a certain speed, you are committed to the take off. you know, just thought i’d throw that out there…

  • Common sense tells us not to take off, but that’s not always the case is it? Otherwise, why would we ever have plane crashes?

  • I love when rich people sue. If he’s successful, imagine how many will lose their jobs.

    And now there’s talk of a potential Blink-182 reunion. There really is no God.

  • when you sue for negligence such as tire failure, equipment, etc., the pilots are ”assumed” to be negligent. meaning the plane(s) need to be inspected before each take off. i am sure they don’t want to sue the pilots, but it is like ”package deal” so to speak……. also at persistent; really? whether you are wealthy or not it does not matter. this guy has every reasonable right to sue. and please, persistent, get the chip that is screaming on your shoulder, off.

  • can you even sue a dead person?
    i think he should be thankful for his life.
    i’m not trivializing what he has been through here, but given that the other people aboard all lost their lives, i think a lawsuit is a really tacky thing to do at this point in time.
    like, does he even need the payout? having an extra million dollars in his bank account won’t change the fact that he was injured and/or traumatized by this so why not just take positive steps to move forward rather than seeking to place blame for wrongdoings that can’t be undone regardless.

  • ummm… tacky??? It’s not that he needs the money, plus the mother of someone who passed away is also suing. If that’s how you feel you are entirely way too critical and judgmental.

    Do you just expect him ot sit by and expect no consequences for the jet company & higher ups just because he has the money? Sure… who f@cking cares about the trauma he endured, both emotional and physical, because he has the money, right? Who cares about whether or not this will happen in the future to someone else as a result of unpunished negligence.

    When something like this happens, things need to be investigated, due punishments need to arise, and companies need to be more careful in the future. Bringing a lawsuit will also ensure that these matters are taken seriously and will decrease the likelihood that something like this will happen again.

    As an airline company, you don’t receive a get out of jail free card just because the people YOU hired, ‘trained’, etc. died as a consequence of their lack of training or insight.

  • You go Travis, you teach those dead pilots a lesson… maybe give their fatherless kids an autographed drumstick! Keep it classy, San Diego.

  • There’s always gotta be a lawsuit. Heaven forbid something happen in your country that doesn’t result in lawsuits.

    You lived guy. Hold on to that.

  • alix, there are many reasons people sue. when massive accidents like this happen as a result of negligence, the lawsuit is mostly about punitive damages (making the company shell out a large sum so that they will do more to ensure that it doesn’t happen again). whether you want to admit it or not, hitting people’s wallets is the surest and quickest way to change their behavior. merely slapping them on the wrist is not going to prevent this from happening again and more people dying. and even if travis feels owed monetarily for his sufferings, can you blame him? he probably has permanent scars that he’s going to have to look at for the rest of his life now, which will probably trigger all sorts of emotional trauma. he also lost two good friends. no one knows what he went through, so quit judging him and quit being so insensitive!

    also, aviation experts have commented on the accident and said that the pilots should have proceeded with takeoff and they made a huge mistake in aborting.

  • > If they had continued with takeoff they would have had more time to prep for an emergency landing.

    And if the pilots had been born with wings they could have carefully placed everyone on the ground safely one at a time.

  • you know, originally i felt bad for thinking this because he got hurt, and almost died, but travis barker was/is/and always will be an asshole and should go eat a dick…im just saying.

  • the pilots f&^ng died a@!hole!

    You think they could tell the tire would blow out!? No! I agree with DP totally. If those pilots could have, they would have gotten everyone out.
    Travis Barker does not need this money to pay for his medical bills, so normal sue your insurance cause you have to does not negate the assholeishness of this at all. This $ had better go to a lets prevent more plane crashes charity.

  • Total scumbag. “making the company shell out a large sum so that they will do more to ensure that it doesn’t happen again” I always hear people say this but name a case where they ended up giving the money to charity. I’m waiting.

    I will ONLY fly commercial. Even when I make it to the top ten richest people in the world, I will only fly commercial because it’s much safer than flying by private jet. Quick, name ten famous people who died in commercial flights, then name thirty who died in private flights. You’ll have trouble with the first list, the second should take a few minutes, at most.

    Any way, it’s easy for experts to weigh in after the fact but the dead pilots he’s suing probably saved his life.

  • travis has every right. and he is doing it for the his friends family. and hopefully if he does win the lawsuit he will use the money for a cause, maybe help burn victims.. lets just hope.

    his assitant who passed in the crash.. his younger brother died the month before in a car accident. i just pray for his mother because i cant imagine whats its like for her.

    ‘some girl’. be a little more intelligent than calling people assholes and saying to eat dick.. super classy.

  • c., i never said i was classy…i dont think ever actually. but im thinking you might want to eat some of that dick travis should be chowing down on right about now.

  • The number of “Little People” who are killed and crippled in this country every day because of the negligence of some giant corporation and yet don’t get to sue anyone is incredible. Reguardless of the so-called “Facts” in any legal case, it always helps to be even a quasi-celebrity with the accompanying access to high-profile lawyers and the media (to get your side of the story out), etc., if you want any kind of “Justice” in this world.

  • This guy is an ugly, disgusting, talentless asshole. Lawsuits, except in the most extreme cases are bullshit. No one is perfect, split decisions do not always turn out right, suing accomplishes nothing except costing us more and more money. He’s a dumb bastard.

  • I don’t where it was exactly but I think it was South West in NY that grounded around 50 commercial planes for the way most have missed their scheduled inspections.

    Small plane or big plane…big head celeb or little person, I hope you get burned to the max for risking other peoples lives. You are trained to keep up inspections, to notice engine failure, I’m assuming they are trained on how to notice tire blow out or failure.

  • Sue the company, not the dead pilots. They paid for their mistake with their lives. How much were their lives worth? You can’t protect yourself from accidents. Life (and death) happens.
    If you must sue- sue the company, cite the defective maintenance, cite the defective tires, cite the probable lack of safety training. Don’t cite the pilots’ families, who most likely are not rich people. If you feel guilty and you want to help your assitant’s family- make sure they’re comfortable for the rest of her life.
    It just is not classy.

  • I doubt the dead pilots will be held responsible. I think in cases like these the lawyers just name everyone involved in the suit. Wouldn’t the employer ulitmately be responsible for shelling out the dough instead of the pilots? If they are claiming the pilots weren’t trained properly, that duty would fall on the company who employ them.

  • @ DP

    It’s not an “if/then” scenario that is implausible that I am suggesting. During flight training, you are trained to continue take-off, if possible, if something comes up during acceleration. Doing so allows you, emergency response crews, etc. to prepare for an emergency landing. It avoids the mistakes that can come from knee-jerk responses and allows everyone involved to plan for contingencies.

    While I don’t agree with naming the pilots in the suit, I wouldn’t object to suing the company. The problem is, in the end, it probably WAS human error that caused the accident. And like someone else mentioned, they and their families have already paid the ultimate price.

  • It might sound weird but my browser doesn’t seem to be able to display your article rightly… It looks like a whole chunk of if is not correctly displayed and the layout of the page doesn’t appear to be right. Can you confirm that this post has been set up for Opera?