Aviation Law & Litigation

Aviation law, which encompasses flight, air travel, and related business matters, is a highly regulated branch of law. It governs various aspects of the aviation industry, including aircraft manufacturing and maintenance, aircraft operations, and upkeep of airport facilities. In many instances, it is regarded as a matter of international law due to the nature of air transportation.

The aviation industry is governed by prominent regulatory bodies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the National Transportation Safety Board, ensuring compliance with established regulations, within the FAA Dynamic Regulatory System (DRS), and ensuring the safety and security of the aviation sector.

Aviation is one of the most highly regulated and specialized industries in the country. Your aviation lawyer should have the ability to bring claims against the most well-known names in aviation, from billion-dollar corporations to the United States Government.

How we are qualified in Aviation Law:

Before graduating from law school, John Gagliano had a distinguished military career as a Navy pilot and flying instructor. As a civilian, John maintains current FAA flight instructor certificates and holds the most demanding FAA pilot qualification: Airline Transport Pilot.

John handles claims from the most highly publicized airline tragedies to military crashes to small single-occupant private plane and helicopter accidents.

Initial crash reports are often incomplete, inaccurate or just wrong. John’s experience allows him to analyze the facts that are reported, analyze what may be missing from initial reports, and guide a forensic team to uncover the truth.

John has successfully litigated airline, private, executive and military aircraft injury and death cases across the country: jets, propeller-driven planes and helicopters.

John is experienced litigating Piper, Cessna, Beech, Cirrus and Mooney including private aircraft as large as King Air and Beech 1900. 

John has handled Eurocopter, Robinson, Bell, and military helicopter cases.  

John’s airline litigation experience includes claims made for clients who were aboard Asiana Flight 214, a Boeing 777 airliner carrying 307 people that crashed into the seawall at San Francisco International Airport. 

John has represented military clients, including litigation arising from the crash of an F-22 Raptor in Alaska, an E-2C Hawkeye off the coast of Pakistan and two A/MH-6M “Little Bird” Special Operations Helicopter crashes.