Where a case is tried depends on jurisdictional facts. An aircraft crash case can be in federal or state court. The usual analysis depends on the citizenship of the parties. If the defendants all live in states that are diverse from the plaintiffs, federal court may be available. If not, the case is usually in state court.
The most important, yet technically demanding, legal aspect to resolve in aircraft accidents is which law to apply or “choice of law.” The 50 states all have different laws that pertain to injuries that occur inside their borders, and some states make it harder to recover than others. For aviation accident cases the law of several states may apply since modern aircraft can cover great distances in a short period of time. For example, a flight from New York to Los Angeles will overfly more than ten states. If the flight crashes while flying over Kansas, the following state laws could possibly apply:
- Kansas law since the crash occurred there
- New York law since the flight departed there
- California law since the passengers lived there
- Washington law since the plane was built there
- Pennsylvania law since a passenger bought his ticket there
Courts generally do not apply the law of the crash site, since the location of the crash is considered somewhat random given the nature of aircraft transportation.