Total Injury

The widow and estate of a man who burned to death inside his airplane following a crash during a 1999 Washington air show was awarded about $10.5 million in a personal injury suit against the show’s sponsors.

Donald Allen Corbitt initially survived the airplane crash of his experimental RV-6A during the 1999 Arlington Fly-In but remained trapped alive when a fire broke out inside the plane. Bystanders attempted to put out the fire with fire extinguishers that gave out before fire officials arrived nearly six minutes later. Corbitt died before fire officials could put out the blaze.
 
The Washington personal injury attorneys of Corbitt’s widow and estate successfully argued that the show's sponsors,  the Northwest Experimental Aircraft Association and the Experimental Aircraft Association based in Wisconsin, should have had ample fire and emergency response personnel at the event given the risks involved.

The city of Arlington and its fire department were also originally sued, but those charges were dropped two years ago in the lawsuit.