Family of severely burned UPS crash victim who died on Christmas files lawsuit
A lawsuit filed in Jefferson County on Friday seeks damages for the daughter of a man who died on Christmas Day, nearly two months after he was severely burned in the UPS plane crash at Muhammad Ali International Airport in Louisville.
Alain Rodriguez Colina, 50, was working at Grade A Auto Parts, adjacent to the airport, when the UPS cargo plane crashed Nov. 4, causing an explosion and fire that destroyed the industrial area, according to the suit.
Fifteen people died as a result of the crash; Rodriquez Colina was the 15th.
He was taken to the intensive care unit at University of Louisville Hospital after the crash and died seven weeks later.
On Friday, Clifford Law Offices and Louisville attorney Sam Aguiar, who are also representing some other families of crash victims, filed a loss of consortium claim on behalf of Rodriguez Colina’s family in Jefferson Circuit Court.
The plaintiff is Geidy Prado Perez, the mother of Rodriguez Colina’s daughter, who brought the suit on her daughter’s behalf.
A news release from Clifford Law Offices said the 16-year-old, who lives in Cuba, was his only child, and they “shared a strong and devoted bond.”
Defendants include UPS, UPS Air, Boeing, engine manufacturer General Electric and VT San Antonio Aerospace, which the suit says “performed maintenance and repair work on the aircraft in the weeks before the crash.”
The suit claims each of the defendants “knew or reasonably should have known that the UPS MD-11 Faircraft used on UPS Flight 2976 was in disrepair or otherwise dangerous and unsafe.”
The MD-11F McDonnell Douglas cargo plane was bound for Honolulu, Hawaii, when the left engine and pylon detached during takeoff.
MD-11s, MD-11Fs, as well as the similarly designed MD-10 and DC-10, have been grounded because of the crash.
Boeing recommended that carriers ground the MD-11 after the Louisville crash, and the Federal Aviation Administration issued an “emergency airworthiness directive” Nov. 8 that “prohibits further flight until the airplane is inspected and all applicable corrective actions are performed.”
A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board said there were fatigue cracks and signs of overstress in the lugs that bolted together the aft mount that attached the left pylon to the wing of the plane that crashed in Louisville.
And earlier this month, an NTSB report said the spherical bearing race was fractured on the plane that crashed. The same part was flagged by Boeing in 2011 for failing on three other planes.
“The tragedy of this crash continues to unfold, and Clifford Law Offices is now trying to help a young, innocent girl who lost her father navigate the court system through the proper legal channels,” Bradley M. Cosgrove, a partner at the firm, said in a news release Friday.
Another law firm, Morgan & Morgan, has also filed a federal class action lawsuit against UPS and other companies on behalf of businesses and residents affected by the crash.
