St. Louis Aviation Accident Lawyer

Air travel has become more common than ever, but with an increase in the number of daily flights worldwide comes an elevated risk of aviation accidents. While it’s true that car accidents occur in far greater numbers than air travel accidents, the consequences of an aviation accident are more often catastrophic.

In addition, many types of accidents can happen during flights, including injuries from turbulence, food cart injuries, falling objects, and in-flight confrontations. If you or a loved one suffered injuries or had a wrongful death in the family due to an air travel injury, contact Miller & Hine to speak to a St. Louis aviation accident lawyer about your rights.

Why Choose Miller & Hine for Your St. Louis Aviation Accident Case?

The St. Louis injury attorneys at Miller & Hine have dedicated their careers to advocating for injury victims, including against powerful adversarial companies that routinely prioritize their profits at the injury victim’s expense. With Miller & Hine, you’ll find the following advantages:

• Attorneys who provide unwavering legal representation to injury victims from diverse backgrounds
• Years of experience, knowledge, and resources behind your case
• A favorable reputation earned by a history of successful results
• A personalized strategy tailored to the unique circumstances and details of your case, rather than a formulaic approach that might not achieve the maximum compensation available to you

Miller & Hine do not charge upfront fees to injured clients. Instead, you can expect a free case consultation. Your attorney represents you throughout the process with the help of an entire legal staff, and you only pay your attorney’s fees after recovering compensation.

Statistics on Aviation Accidents

While commercial airline travel remains statistically the safest mode of transportation according to the National Safety Council, statistics mean little when you or a loved one suffers a life-altering injury. Aviation accidents are not as uncommon as you might think. The following statistics highlight today’s risk of aviation accidents:

• There were 1,216 accidents involving civilian aircraft during 2023
• There were 49 on-board fatalities in both 2006 and 2009
• There were 36 in-flight injuries in 2023
• So far in 2025, fatalities have spiked at 404 aviation deaths in 9 accidents, compared to the five-year average of 150 fatalities per year
• Between 1959 and 2024, The Boeing Company reported 641 fatal aviation accidents, 1,542 non-fatal accidents, and 173 accidents with “substantial damage.”
• Up to 80% of aviation accidents result from human error

When an airline disaster or aviation injury could have been prevented with reasonable care and adherence to safety regulations, injury victims and the families of those fatally injured have the right to file a claim for compensation against the airline or another liable party.

What Types of Injuries Happen in Airplane Accidents?

When we consider the risk of an aviation accident, it’s common to imagine the worst—like a plane plummeting to the ground from full altitude. Although the worst-case airline disaster scenarios do occur, far more aviation accidents happen during landing or take-off. Still, those accidents occur at high speed and can cause severe and deadly injuries such as the following:

• Single and multiple bone fractures
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Neck injuries
• Back injuries
• External head and facial injuries
• Soft-tissue injuries to shoulders, knees, ankles, wrists, and other body parts
• Burns
• Smoke inhalation respiratory injuries
• Lacerations, contusions, and abrasions
• Crush injuries
• Internal bleeding and internal organ injury
• Chest and thoracic injuries
• Spinal cord injuries
• Traumatic amputations

Even a minor, fully recoverable injury, such as a mild concussion caused by falling luggage from an improperly secured overhead bin, can cause damage. This often includes an emergency room bill and days of lost pay.

A more serious or catastrophic injury from an aviation accident in St. Louis or elsewhere can result in financial hardship. These consequences of an airplane accident injury are the damages in a compensation claim. Before recovering compensation, an injury victim has the burden of providing evidence of negligence and the at-fault party’s liability.

Proving Liability for St. Louis Aviation Accidents

Even in high-profile airline disasters, injury victims have to prove liability to recover their damages. This is the same burden of proving liability that applies in all personal injury claims. After an aviation accident, the airline’s powerful insurance companies investigate the crash, but their goal is to protect their profits.

Neutral third parties and government authorities also investigate airline accidents. An injury victim’s aviation accident attorney investigates the accident with the goal of protecting their client’s best interests. Your airplane accident attorney from Miller & Hine will make a compelling claim on your behalf by proving that the negligence that occurred meets the following legal standards of liability:

• The at-fault party owed a duty of care to the injured victim
• They violated their duty of care through negligence
• The negligent violation of their duty of care caused an accident and injuries
• The injury victim suffered damages from the injury

In some cases, defective aircraft equipment causes an aviation accident. In these cases, it isn’t necessary to prove negligence due to a manufacturer’s strict liability standard. Instead, your attorney must demonstrate that the product had a design flaw, manufacturing defect, or marketing mistake that made it defective.

What Damages Can I Recover In an Aviation Accident Claim In St. Louis?

An injury can leave the injury victim facing financial hardship as well as the pain and trauma of their injury. Sadly, some aviation accidents cause catastrophic injuries, leaving the victim with a disability, disfigurement, or diminished quality of life. Although a successful personal injury claim cannot erase the injury, it eases the financial burden and provides injury victims with the financial accountability they deserve. Common damages recovered in aviation accident claims include the following:

• Reimbursement for medical expenses
• Anticipated future medical costs related to the injury
• Lost earnings
• Future income loss/reduced future earning ability
• Out-of-pocket injury-related expenses
• Compensation for pain and suffering
• Emotional damages, such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances
• Any catastrophic injury damages that apply, such as loss of limb, scarring, disfigurement, loss of vision or hearing, or loss of enjoyment of life/diminished quality of life

Wrongful death compensation may be available to a close family member after an aviation accident in St. Louis or elsewhere results in fatal injury.

Call Miller & Hine to Speak to an Aviation Accident Lawyer In St. Louis

A claim against a powerful airline, an air-traffic control agency, or other aviation entity is challenging and complex. Instead of leaving such a critical case in the hands of insurance investigators and airline attorneys who do not have your best interests at heart, call Miller & Hine to set up a free case consultation.