James T. Crouse has been a pilot for thirty-two years, during which time he has performed as a U.S. Army aircraft maintenance officer, maintenance test pilot, and research and development test pilot. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army's Aviation Maintenance Officer's Course and Test Pilot School. This technical background, together with his education and experience, enhance the firm’s unique position in aviation and product liability litigation.
Mr. Crouse was graduated from Davidson College in 1971 and from Duke Law School in 1980. From 1971 to 1977 he was on active duty with the U.S. Army, where he served as an infantry officer and aviator. As an aviator, he performed research and development and maintenance test flying duties.
Mr. Crouse was admitted to practice in 1981 in Louisiana, and subsequently has been admitted to practice in New York (1983), the District of Columbia (1987), Texas (1989), North Carolina (1996) and Virginia (1997), as well as Federal and State Courts in those jurisdictions.
Mr. Crouse has litigation experience involving major air carriers, general aviation, helicopter, and military crashes, as well as non-aviation mass disaster litigation. He has served as plaintiffs' lead counsel in the British International Helicopter's Boeing Model 234 crash (the world's largest civilian helicopter disaster) and as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the Lockheed C-5A crash at Ramstein AB, Germany (1990), the British Midlands 737-400 crash in England (1989), the U.S. Army's Chinook crash in Mannheim, Germany (1982), and the Piedmont/Henson Airline Beech 99 crash in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia 1985). Mr. Crouse's other airline crash experience includes membership on the Plaintiffs' Steering Committees in the Comair EMB-120 crash near Detroit, Michigan (1997), American Eagle ATR-72 crash in Indiana (1994), the ASA Carrollton, Georgia Crash (1995), the U-S. Air B-737 crash near Pittsburgh (1994), the TAN/SAHSA Boeing 727 crash in Honduras (1989) and the LAN/Chile BAE 146 crash in Chile (1991).
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has just released its Preliminary Report (PR) on yet another Robinson Helicopter fatal crash, this one involving a Model R66 which took the lives of two citizens of Buffalo, New York.
This week the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued its Preliminary Report (PR) on the January 26, 2020 crash of a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter which took the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other souls.
The announcement by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that the Sikorsky S-76 which crashed with Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other people on board did not have a Terrain Avoidance Warning System (TAWS) installed has caught the attention of the media. Some have…
Helicopters are complex, sophisticated machines which, unlike airplanes (fixed-wing aircraft), have hundreds of moving parts, all of which must function properly individually and collectively for the helicopter to operate safely. But the most important “moving parts” of a helicopter are the pilot and those in…
The tragic crash of the Sikorsky S-76 helicopter carrying basketball great Kobe Bryant, his thirteen year old daughter and seven other fathers, mothers and daughters, brought out immediate speculation in the press as to what caused the crash,as do most aircraft crashes. Such speculation intensifies…