Family of Child Injured on Carlsbad State Beach Following Plane Crash Files Suit

12-Year-Old Boy Suffered Serious Head Injury

SAN DIEGO (September 9, 2015) San Diego-based law firm CaseyGerry filed a lawsuit today on behalf of the family of a 12-year-old boy seriously injured after a single-engine plane crashed on Carlsbad State Beach earlier this summer.

The lawsuit was filed this morning against the plane’s owner/operator Air Ads, Inc.; company owner James Oakley; and pilot, Luke William Kanagy in San Diego Superior Court. The accident happened after a single-engine Piper PA18 – which was towing an advertising banner – lost engine power and landed on a crowded beach on the Fourth of July holiday.

According to attorney David S. Casey Jr., the disabled plane veered toward the beach, landed and then flipped upside down – sending beachgoers scrambling for their lives and ultimately striking Nicholas Baer, a 12-year-old boy, in the head. Pilot Kanagy was not injured.

The accident was directly due to the pilot and aircraft owner’s negligence, Casey Jr. said. “This was a serious accident in which a young boy suffered a head injury – from which he is recovering – and ultimately underwent emergency brain surgery at Rady Children’s Hospital,” Casey Jr. said. “It is simply reckless to land a plane on a crowded beach, even in the event of engine failure,” he added.

Casey Jr. said the pilot violated 14 Code of Federal Regulations 91.119 (c), which stipulates a plane must keep and maintain a 500-foot distance from people on the ground. “The safety of children and families on that beach should have been paramount – banner-towing aircraft have a high crash rate, and we want to ensure nothing like this happens again,” he said. “Families bringing their youngsters to the beach should worry about the risks of sunburn, rip tides and stingrays, but not planes landing on their children.”

See the 10 News story here

See the San Diego Union Tribune story here

See the CBS 8 story here

About CaseyGerry

CaseyGerry was established in 1947, and is the longest-standing plaintiffs’ law firm in San Diego. The firm’s14 attorneys practice in numerous areas, including serious personal injury, product liability, pharmaceutical, mass tort and class action litigation. Headquartered at 110 Laurel St. in the Banker’s Hill neighborhood of San Diego, the firm also has an additional office in Carlsbad, Calif. For more information, call 619-283-1811.