The United States Aviation Insurance Group — insurer for Comair, a Delta Air Lines Connection carrier — was served a wrongful-death lawsuit for the death of a Florida man killed in the Comair Flight 5191 crash in Lexington, Ky., according to a release from the law firm Podhurst Orseck, who is representing one of the victims.

According to the release, the lawsuit was filed by the family of Charles Lykins, 46, who was among the 49 people killed in the crash at the Blue Grass Airport on Aug. 27, 2006. The suit is against Comair Inc., Delta Air Lines, and First Officer James M. Polehinke, the plane's co-pilot and the crash's lone survivor.

The release reports that the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the CRJ-100 regional commuter jet, which was cleared to take off from a different runway, mistakenly departed from a shorter runway, causing it to crash into a field and burst into flames.

According to the release, Steven C. Marks, the lawyer filing the suit for the Lykins family, believes human error was a key factor in the fiery crash, “It is clear that the flight crew made critical and fatal mistakes,” said Marks. “Comair has acknowledged publicly that its pilots were using an outdated airport map in an attempt to make excuses for departing from the wrong runway. Therefore, both the airline and its pilots are clearly responsible for this tragedy despite what we are sure will be efforts by their insurer and lawyers to blame others.”

The release reports that although other plaintiffs have filed suits in Kentucky , jury verdicts in that state are historically much lower than those awarded in Florida , where verdicts are among the highest in the country. The release goes on to say that the lawsuit, which seeks damages under the Florida Wrongful Death Act, could be a major hit to Aviation Insurance Group especially if the other victims take advantage of a South Florida forum.

Special Reports /

Comair Insurer Faces Claims for Crash

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