A Halifax law firm has filed a statement of claim seeking $12 million in a class-action lawsuit following damages sustained by the Air Canada Flight 624 crash in late March, the CBC reports.
The plane had 133 passengers on board.
MacGillivray Injury and Insurance Law, attorneys for the plaintiffs, are directing their claims against Halifax International Airport Authority, NAV Canada and Air Canada, as well as the unnamed captain and first officer of the flight.
"We're looking to find out as much as we can about the precise details of what factors contributed to the accident," Jamie MacGillivray, told the CBC. "We hope to obtain that information through document disclosure and having a chance to discover question under oath the people involved in the accident."
The statement of claim not only alleges that the flight’s crew failed to “take reasonable care to avoid the crash,” but also that Halifax’s airport runways remained in use “when it knew or ought to have known that was not reasonably safe to do so.”
In addition, the statement claims that Nav Canada instructed the flight to touch down when it “knew or should have known the conditions were unsafe for landing.”
The statement names 54 year-old Nova Scotian mechanic S. Philip Cameron as lead plaintiff, and alleges that he suffered psychological injury and trauma, as well as “bruising, tearing, straining and damaging of the nerves, muscles, tendons and ligaments.”
It also claims that other passengers were caused to endure “anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, fear of flying, fatigue, nightmares and insomnia.”
While the class action suit has yet to be certified, the firm has already put forth plans to file a mass tort claim in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court later this week.
"The class action has one representative and if it's ever certified, that representative would represent all passengers on the plane. But if it's not certified, our fallback is to have a single action with all 20 plaintiffs named individually," MacGillivray told the CBC.
The firm’s website contends that this mass tort claim serves as a safeguard to ensure that companies are held responsible for bringing injury to consumers.
“We believe that claims like these help change the behavior of profit motivated corporations - keeping them accountable to people they hurt and encouraging higher safety standards,” it reads.
