A complaint filed by his family on behalf of Ricardo Tazoe, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, also names European jet manufacturer Airbus, the Goodrich Corp, and International Aero Engines (IAE) as defendants. The Miami resident died in an Airbus crash in Sao Paulo.
198 other people who were killed when the Tam Airbus A320 skidded off a rainy runway at Sao Paulo’s Congonhas Airport.
TAM is charged with negligence. The plane should have been grounded because one of its thrust reversers was not working. Defendants include Goodrich, the manufacturer of the aircraft’s braking system and IAE, which assembled the plane’s engine.
“From the evidence gathered so far, it’s clear that TAM knew there were problems with the aircraft,” Steven C. Marks, an attorney at Miami law firm Podhurst Orseck, said in the statement. “Had (the thrust reverser) been operational, it may have prevented this accident.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified financial damages.
IAE is United Technologies Corp. Pratt & Whitney, Britain’s Rolls-Royce Plc, Japan’s Aero Engines Corp. and Germany’s MTU Aero Engones.
The firm that filed the suit is also representing several families in a suit concerning an earlier crash in the Amazon this year.