The mom of a budding journalist killed when his safety harness failed to release after during a tragic, 2018 East River helicopter crash won a $116 million lawsuit verdict Wednesday — the largest ever in New York history.
The Manhattan Supreme Court jury gave the record award to Nancy Cadigan, the mother of Trevor Cadigan, 26, who drowned along with four other passengers when the helicopter they were touring on crashed in the East River in March 2018.
Both of Cadigan’s parents were originally named a plaintiffs in the suit, but his father, Jerry, himself a broadcast journalist, was unable to see the day of reckoning as he died in July at age, 72.
Kansas-city based attorney Gary C. Robb, who represented Cadigan’s parents, praised the jury for holding “these companies accountable for their immoral and reckless actions,” at the close of the three-month-long trial.
Wednesday’s award of $116,067,076 is the highest jury verdict for a single wrongful death in New York history, according to a legal research firm VerdictSearch.
The lawsuit alleged that the doors-off helicopter tours — popular with shutterbugs who aim to shoot their legs dangling over the city — are far more dangerous than regular closed-door tours, since they require a much more restrictive harness and tether system, which is much more difficult to release than regular helicopter straps in an emergency.
The sole survivor, helicopter pilot Richard Vance — who was also initially a defendant to the Cadigan’s suit — survived largely because he was not similarly strapped-down, officials said at the time.
“These doors-off helicopter tour operators put Trevor in a death trap, and they knew it. They were fully aware for months that the passengers would have no chance of escape from their make-shift harness and tether system in the event of an emergency water landing,” Robb said.
FLYNYON, the charter company Cadigan was flying with at the time of his death, still offers doors-off tours, but now with harnesses that are easier to remove in case of an emergency, a mandate issued by the FAA in the wake of the crash.
According to the verdict sheet, jurors found both FLYON and Liberty Helicopter, the helicopter owner, nearly equally at fault. A third defendant, aerospace parts manufacturer Dart, was also found liable for a defective inflation device that failed to go off when the helicopter hit the water. The helicopter’s manufacturer, Airbus, was not found to be at fault.
Cadigan’s best friend, Dallas-based firefighter Brian McDaniel, 26, also drowned in the horrifying crash. His family settled their own similar lawsuit in 2022.
The legal team representing FLYON and Liberty Helicopter did not respond to a request for comment. A lawyer representing Dart also did not respond in time for publication.
