Hire the attorney pilot, Steven Lamar Thompson, to seek compensation for death, bodily injury or causally related emotional distress suffered, and/or damage sustained to personal property (e.g., baggage and cargo) that occurred while inside or around an airport.

Personal injury suffered by a visitor or guest, and/or damage to personal property that occurred while inside or around an airport may involve multiple at-fault parties that contributed to the cause of an accident: the airport authority that operates the airport, it’s county government and its employee; the state; a maintenance company; a retail vendor (e.g., shop, restaurant, bar); the TSA; an airline and its employee; another visitor or guest; or even the FAA. Here, the FAA, and state law may be involved, as well as the FBI if a crime is suspected. A claim for damages may be based on a theory of negligent tort, intentional tort, and strict product liability. A claim may be made against each inextricably linked at-fault party that contributed to the cause of an accident.

A personal injury accident and/or damage to personal property that occurs inside or around an airport may be caused by a/an: slip-and-fall due to dangerous surfaces, lose or slippery tiling, torn or rippled carpet; inadequately maintained moving sidewalk; escalator or elevator; run-away courtesy cart; jetway gap; unsafe condition inside a jet bridgeway; unlit, uneven, broken or cracked sidewalk; unlit, broken or unmarked stair; loose handrail; car vandalized in a parking lot; inadequate and unmanned security system; inadequate warning of a construction area; uncleaned food court spill and waste; and dog bite.

Airports provide many facilities for visitors and guests such as shops, restaurants, bars, and parking lots, all of which may have individual liability for the area that they occupy in addition to the airport’s liability. So, it may be necessary to consider pursuing a compensation claim against more than one party where it is not entirely clear who was to blame. For example, a slip-and-fall injury at Saipan International Airport (SPN), Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) may have multiple at-fault parties. Saipan International Airport is owned and operated by the Commonwealth Port Authority. A slip-and-fall here may be the result of not only the Commonwealth Port Authorities negligence, but also a maintenance company.

Take special note that an airport authority and any company operating within an airport itself each have a duty to ensure that both visitors and guests can use its facilities safely. However, the responsibility for the safety of guests on an international flight may differ once they have passed through a departure gate. After being checked into the departure area of an “international flight,” a guest then might lawfully be titled a passenger even when not actually being called to board an airplane. Here, by law, a passenger may be owed a “heightened duty of care” from both the airport authority and international air carrier. Additionally, when an accident that causes an injury occurs outside of an airplane (e.g., in the international departure area) it may invoke the purview of the Montreal Convention.