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Jury Determines Airplane Manufacturer Not at Fault in Cory Lidle Plane Crash

May 25, 2011

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May 24, 2011

The widow of Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle lost a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against a plane manufacturer on Tuesday when a jury decided that her husband died as a result of pilot error and not mechanical failure.

Melanie Lidle filed suit against Minnesota's Cirrus Design Corp., in 2007, alleging that her husband's plane was mechanically defective and that it crashed into a Manhattan apartment building in 2006 because of a steering lockup.

Cory Lidle and a flight instructor both perished when Lidle's single-engine SR20 crashed in October 2006. The crash also injured 20 other people, including many firemen.

Prior to the month-long trial, the National Transportation Safety Board named pilot error as the cause of the crash but Lidle's attorney argued, "There is no negligence. If you can't control the airplane, you can't be at fault. This airplane was out of control."

Federal investigators never could determine whether Lidle or his flight instructor was piloting the four-passenger plane at the time of the crash.

Lidle played nine seasons of professional baseball with seven different teams.

Read more.

Do you think the jury made the right decision today?

If you or someone you know has had their safety compromised on a commercial or private aircraft, contact the aviation accident lawyers at Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy.

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