Uncrashworthy Aircraft and the Manufacturer's Liability

The concept of crashworthiness has now been accepted by a resounding majority of states if not all states. Although widely used since Larsen in automobile crash cases, crashworthiness has only recently been successfully applied to the aircraft. Perhaps this foreshadows the future. The automobile differs only slightly from the helicopter and the airplane.

All are products; all are accepted modes of transportation; and all may be designed to be reasonably safe. The doctrine of crashworthiness has been so widely accepted with respect to the automobile that the time has now arrived for the doctrine to be accepted in the field of aviation. Generally in the past, the same standards for product liability applied to other products have also applied to aircraft. Thus it is no surprise that crashworthiness issues are beginning to surface in cases of aircraft accident litigation.