One pilot who narrowly cheated death for the third time recently received in excess of £100,000 in an accident claim against the manufacturers of his ultralight aircraft, personal injury compensation experts recently reported.
Jim Martin, a former Cumbrian air ambulance pilot, astounded medics after he survived a plunge of 1,000 feet in a controlled crash landing after the tail of his aircraft snapped in flight. The 54 year old pilot, who had been piloting the plane in 2007, set the aircraft down near Morpeth, Northumberland at Burgham Golf Course, and received praise for the quick thinking that allowed him to navigate the crippled aircraft into a nearby copse of trees, thereby saving the lives of both him and his passenger, Jon Ker, an air ambulance paramedic.
Both Mr Martin and his passenger made personal injury claims against Dyn’ Aero, the manufacturer of the aircraft. The French company initially denied any liability for the crash, but legal representatives for Mr Martin and Mr Ker made successful arguments that defective bolts on the aircraft were to blame for the crash.
Both natives of Northumberland, the men involved in the accident sustained severe injuries in the crash, with Mr Martin still suffering pain and needing a stick in order to walk for the rest of his natural life. His passenger has had to relinquish his dreams of one day becoming a commercial airline pilot due to his own injuries as well, sources say.
However, each of the injured men won compensation payments for their severe injuries, and Mr Martin, who currently works as a police and ambulanc helicopter crew trainer in the United Arab Emirates, said that the accident that left him and his passenger with both physical and mental scars gave them both the determination to continue living their lives to the fullest in any way they could.