Overheating Apple devices caused an EgyptAir plane to crash into the Mediterranean, the families of those who died claim in a lawsuit against the technology giant and the airline.

EgyptAir flight 804 flight went down in the Mediterranean while en route from Paris to Cairo in May 2016, killing 40 Egyptians, 15 French citizens, and one Briton.

Now it has been reported several of the victims claim the crash was down to the co-pilot's iPhone 6S or iPad mini overheating in the cockpit and catching fire.

According to court documents seen by TMZ, the families claim an investigation has revealed the device ignited and led to a bigger fire in the cockpit, which ultimately took the plane down.

The families are suing for damages and both the airline and Apple are listed in the case.

Egyptian authorities have now concluded their inquiry and a file has been passed to the country's Attorney General in Cairo.

But a separate investigation by the French has stalled due to the Egyptians' apparent refusal to hand over debris and raw data from the aircraft's black box recorders.

It is understood that French investigators are exploring three possible causes: terrorism, a fire caused by the co-pilot's mobile devices overheating after being plugged into an incorrect socket in the cockpit or a mechanical fault.

It emerged earlier this year that the widow of a British man, father-of-two Richard Osman, 40, who died on the flight is suing the airline for damages.

His widow Aurelie is seeking compensation from EgyptAir through the High Court.

The family had recently bought a house on Jersey.

The geologist flew regularly with his job at the Australian gold mining firm Centamin Ltd and was en route to Egypt at the time of the crash.

The operator is citing the fact that the plane did not crash in British territory and that Jersey - where Mr Osman booked his flight through a travel agent - is not part of the UK.

The airline, which has no office in Jersey, says that means the English courts simply have 'no jurisdiction' to consider the family's claim.

Mr Osman was the only Brit onboard the doomed flight and died just three weeks after celebrating the birth of his second daughter.

MailOnline has contacted both EgyptAir and Apple for comment. </s> In mid-January 2017 Patently Apple posted a report titled "A Weak Circumstantial Theory by French Investigators Points to Fiery Apple Device Bringing Down Air Egypt." We noted back then that "A report this week out of Europe noted that French investigators theorize that the batteries in a co-pilot's iPad mini 4 or iPhone 6s may have caused the mysterious crash of EgyptAir flight MS804, which went down on May 19th of last year. All 66 people onboard were killed." We ended our report stating that "Unless the French investigative team can produce the very Apple product and confirm a direct connection to the crash, putting out a theory such as this to the public is incomprehensibly irresponsible. You have to wonder what political motivation there could possibly be for such reckless behavior."

Today we're learning from various European reports that a new lawsuit has been filed against Apple for the crash of the EgyptAir Flight 804. TMZ reports that The families of several of the victims of the May 19, 2016 crash claim the tragedy was due to the co-pilot's iPhone 6S or iPad mini overheating in the cockpit and catching fire.

According to the docs ... an investigation revealed the device ignited and led to a bigger fire in the cockpit, which ultimately took the plane down.

It should be noted, however -- some industry experts have questioned this phone theory ... and believe the fire on the plane started beneath the cockpit in the avionics bay due to a short circuit or some kind of explosion.

Still, the families believe there's enough evidence to hold Apple responsible for the deaths of their loved ones."

Until there's an official government report definitively pointing to an Apple device being the cause of the crash, the action of the relatives is simply anger looking for a party to blame and nothing more.

In 2016 the BBC reported that "Egyptian investigators" announced that traces of explosives had been found on the victims. The Guardian reported at the same time that "French investigators were reported to have found trace levels of the explosive TNT on recovered debris but claimed they were prevented from further examining it. Egyptian officials denied the claim.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. </s> It's been less than two weeks since the stock of Tesla tumbled, when amid a flurry of scandal, production setbacks and Wall Street downgrades, the company admitted that its autopilot had been engaged during a fatal March 23 crash in which Apple engineer Walter Huang died when his Model X collided with a highway barrier in Mountain View, California, and caught fire.

At the time, Elon Musk enraged the NTSB, when his company broke a public embargo and claimed that the autopilot was not at fault, even though the government agency had not yet concluded what was the reason behind the crash. This in turn prompted a furious rebuke from the NTSB, which was angry that Tesla was clouding the conclusion by presupposing that the autopilot had no guilt:

And now, just hours after Huang's family hired a law firm in preparation for a major lawsuit against Tesla, Musk doubled down and once again placed the blame for the fatal Model X crash on the deceased driver, claiming in an emailed statement that the tragic accident happened on a clear day, with several hundred feet of visibility ahead, and that Huang didn’t have his hands on the steering wheel for six seconds before his vehicle collided with a highway barrier in Mountain View, California, and caught fire.

“The only way for this accident to have occurred is if Mr. Huang was not paying attention to the road, despite the car providing multiple warnings to do so,” the statement said. “The fundamental premise of both moral and legal liability is a broken promise, and there was none here.”

Others, such as Huang's widow, disagree.

Speaking to ABC7, Sevonne Huang, the wife of the killed Apple engineer said "I just want this tragedy not to happen again to another family." She says her husband complained on several occasions about how the Autopilot behaved on the Tesla Model X near the very same barrier where he crashed and died.

"Unfortunately, it appears that Tesla has tried to blame the victim here," Huang family attorney Mark Fong told ABC7. "It took him out of the lane that he was driving in, then it failed to break, then it drove him into this fixed concrete barrier. We believe this would've never happened had this Autopilot never been turned on."

Musk's repeat defense of the autopilot, which we also learned that Huang had previously complained about, and which nearly caused a similar fatal crash at exactly the same location, will once again infuriate the National Transportation Safety Board, whose investigators are currently looking into the causes of the crash that killed Huang, as well as a collision in January involving a Tesla Model S using Autopilot that rear-ended a fire truck parked on a freeway near Los Angeles.

In keeping with Musk's inimical style, the Tesla email also repeated said it is “extremely clear” that Autopilot requires drivers to be alert and have hands on the steering wheel. The system reminds the driver this every time it’s engaged, according to the company.

While Minami Tamaki LLP, the law firm that announced its hiring by Huang’s family earlier Wednesday, declined to comment on Tesla’s statement, others did not feel the need to hold back.

"Tesla’s response is reflective of its ongoing strategy of doubling down on the explicit warnings it has given to drivers on how to use and not use the system,” said Mike Ramsey, an analyst at Gartner Inc. “It’s not the first time Tesla has taken this stance.”

Another way of putting that is that the stakes for Tesla are great, and Musk knows that if the NTSB concludes that the electric carmaker was at fault, any modest demand momentum it may have, could be gone overnight.

After partially faulting Autopilot for a May 2016 fatal crash, NTSB investigators last year called on carmakers to do more to ensure drivers stay engaged as next-generation cars start to steer themselves. Tesla has lagged behind automakers including General Motors Co. and Subaru Corp. in embracing driver-facing camera systems that can monitor head and eye movement and disengage partially autonomous systems when the driver isn’t paying attention.

This who fiasco also begs the question: why is it called "Autopilot" in the first place, if it disengages the moment the driver's attention is diverted.

Meanwhile, a bit of a turf war has erupted between the NTSB and NHTSA. As Bloomberg reports, while the NTSB has no regulatory powers but makes safety-related recommendations to both the government and transportation companies, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does have the power to order recalls and fine manufacturers; it also investigated the 2016 Tesla crash and closed its probe in January 2017, saying it didn’t find a defect.

One can guess which particular agency Musk has been lobbying.

Meanwhile, with a major lawsuit looming, Tesla continues to defend a system which - at least as of this moment - appears woefully inadequate. According to data Tesla gave investigators, Autopilot prevents the rate of crashes per million miles driven by about 40%, a figure it continues to cite in defending the system.

And yet, the company has declined to say how long drivers can now use Autopilot between visual or audible warnings to have a hand on the wheel, how many alerts can be ignored before the system disengages, what version of software was in Huang’s Model X, or when it was built.

“We empathize with Mr. Huang’s family, who are understandably facing loss and grief, but the false impression that Autopilot is unsafe will cause harm to others on the road,” Tesla said in Wednesday’s statement. “NHTSA found that even the early version of Tesla Autopilot resulted in 40 percent fewer crashes and it has improved substantially since then. The reason that other families are not on TV is because their loved ones are still alive.”

No matter how the lawsuit ends, or how many more lives are lost as Musk beta tests his favorite invention, the far bigger delusion continues. As John Thompson, head of Vilas Capital Management, put it best: "As a reality check, Tesla is worth twice as much as Ford, yet Ford made six million cars last year at a $7.6 billion profit, while Tesla made 100,000 cars at a $2 billion loss." </s> INDIANAPOLIS – The Indianapolis woman who lost her husband, three children and five other relatives in the sinking of a Missouri duck boat filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the tour-boat operators and manufacturer.

"This tragedy was the predictable and predicted result of decades of unacceptable,

 greed-driven and willful ignorance of safety by the duck boat industry," lawyers for Tia Coleman said in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Missouri.

Sixteen of 29 passengers died July 19 when a duck boat sank during stormy weather in Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri. A crew member also died.

Nine members of the Coleman family were killed including Tia's husband, Glenn Coleman, 40; daughter Arya Coleman,1; and sons Evan Coleman, 7, and Reece Coleman, 9.

“I know that nothing can ever bring back my family," Coleman said in a statement, "but I hope that through the justice system — and citizen action to ban deadly duck boats — we can spare other families the kind of unimaginable pain and heartbreak I live with every day.

"These boats can never be allowed to kill again.”

Ripley Entertainment Inc., the parent company of the tour operator and the duck boat manufacturer, told IndyStar it can't comment on pending litigation. In a statement on its website, Ripley says the business hasn't operated since the duck boat sank.

At least 10 other lawsuits have been filed on behalf of other victims, including the five other Coleman family members.

Tia Coleman leveled blame squarely on Ripley Entertainment, which she claims had been warned years ago that duck boats could be deadly.

"If they really supported the families, they never would have put us into what they knew were dangerous duck boats in the face of an oncoming storm," Tia Coleman said in the statement, released by her attorney.

"We trusted them," Coleman said, "and they took our children, husbands, fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and friends."

August 29: Coast Guard finds probable cause for 'negligence' in Branson duck boat tragedy, feds say

July 21: Here are the 17 victims of the Missouri duck boat tragedy

Coleman's lawsuit demands that Ripley shut down duck boat operations worldwide and calls on the rest of the duck boat industry to close until the safety systems are improved. The lawsuit also seeks unspecified compensatory, punitive and other damages.

Coleman's lawyers say there have been 26 deaths linked to six previous duck boat tragedies in the U.S. and Canada dating back to 1999.

Coleman's lawyers say the National Transportation Safety Board warned in 2002 that duck boat canopies pose an "unacceptable risk" to passenger safety. The NTSB report urged owners and manufacturers to remove the canopies and make the boats tougher to sink.

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley filed a lawsuit Friday under the state's consumer protection law seeking to force the industry to adopt new safety measures.

Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Missouri launched a criminal investigation into the duck boat tragedy and on Aug. 29 asked a judge to order a temporary pause in all civil lawsuits filed against the operators. Prosecutors believe the discovery process in the civil suits could jeopardize the criminal probe. </s> Relatives of victims of the Shoreham airshow disaster in which 11 men died have expressed their disappointment after the display pilot who crashed a vintage Hawker Hunter jet was cleared of manslaughter.

Andrew Hill, 54, a former British Airways captain who was also an RAF flying instructor, was accused during his trial of flying “too low and too slow” as he attempted a “bent loop” manoeuvre. He claimed he experienced “cognitive impairment” while at the controls, brought on by hypoxia possibly due to G-force.

Up to 20,000 spectators were at the airshow when the 1950s ex-military jet crashed on to the A27 in West Sussex and erupted into a fireball on 22 August 2015.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The vintage jet just before the Shoreham airshow crash in 2015. Photograph: Sussex police/CPS/PA

The 11 who died were Maurice Abrahams, 76; Dylan Archer, 42; Tony Brightwell, 53; Matthew Grimstone, 23; Matt Jones, 24; Graham Mallinson, 72; Daniele Polito, 23; Mark Reeves, 53; Jacob Schilt, 23; Richard Smith, 26; and Mark Trussler, 54. They all lived in Sussex.

Hill was seriously injured after his cockpit separated from the rest of the aircraft and his seat was thrown clear. He was found partially conscious near burning wreckage.

He told jurors he had no memory of the crash or the events immediately before it and had never watched video footage of it, and he said the devastation caused was a dominant thought in his everyday life. He denied 11 counts of manslaughter by gross negligence.

Shoreham airshow disaster: the 11 victims Read more

Speaking outside the Old Bailey in London following his acquittal, Hill read out the names of the 11 men and said: “I’m truly sorry for the part I played in their deaths.”

Families of those killed wept as the unanimous verdicts were delivered after seven hours of deliberations. The judge, the Hon Mr Justice Edis, acknowledged that the relatives were “enormously upset” and he praised the “very dignified way” they had conducted themselves during the two-month trial.

Matthew Grimstone’s parents, Sue and Phil Grimstone, said the outcome set an alarming precedent for airshows, and they questioned whether displays should be allowed if there was risk of cognitive impairment.

Leslye Polito, the mother of Daniele, a builder, said she was extremely disappointed and felt let down by the justice system. She is one of many who have called for the Shoreham airshow not to take place again as a mark of respect.

The families have called for a “thorough and frank” investigation to prevent future tragedies and will now look to the inquest into the deaths to provide answers.

The prosecution claimed Hill was flying at 2,800ft and failed to select full throttle as he began the ill-fated bent loop. A safe height would have been about 4,300ft, the court was told. He also failed to perform an escape manoeuvre, it was claimed.

Hill, an A-grade student and Cambridge University graduate, was regarded as a respected and competent pilot, the court heard. He joined the RAF after Cambridge, and as a top-performing pilot he was selected as an instructor. He later joined Virgin Atlantic and then moved to British Airways, reaching the senior position of captain.

He was said to have told paramedics after the crash that he had blacked out at the controls. Subsequent medical checks could not establish any condition that might have affected his health, jurors heard.

In hospital he was placed in an induced coma having sustained fractures to his nose, ribs and part of his lower spine, as well as a collapsed lung and serious bruising. He was discharged after a month.

Accounts from survivors read to the courtroom described how they were blown off their feet and then ran for their lives to escape the fireball. Some sustained terrible burns. Of those who died, five were in vehicles. The others were either watching the airshow from a roadside grass verge or waiting to cross the road.

All Hawker Hunter jets were grounded immediately and regulations have since been tightened to limit some displays to flypasts. Shoreham was the greatest loss of life at an airshow since 31 people including the pilot died at Farnborough in 1952.

For a conviction for manslaughter by gross negligence, the jury had to be satisfied that Hill’s conduct was so bad as to amount to a criminal act or omission. Jurors were told that the case hinged on the question of whether the defendant was incapacitated in such as way that he was not in control of the aircraft.

One juror was discharged on the first day of the trial after telling court staff he could never convict anyone over the crash because it was an accident, it can now be reported.

DI Jon Fanner, of Sussex police, said it had been a “long, complex and unique investigation”. While he respected the verdict, it had been “clearly appropriate” for Hill to stand trial, he said.

Sarah Stewart, a partner at the law firm Stewarts, representing some of the relatives, said compensation claims had been settled. She added: “Many families do not look for compensation. They want answers so that future deaths can be prevented.”

She said the families had had to “painfully relive the circumstances of their loved one’s death again and again”. The verdicts went some way towards providing answers, “but it is only one part of the jigsaw”, she said.

Rebecca Smith, of the law firm Irwin Mitchell, representing others affected, said: “While there have been some recommendations from the Air Accident Investigation Branch following their early reports, it is only once the whole event has been examined at the inquest that lessons can be fully learned to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”

Andrew Hill profile

Hill, a trained Royal Airforce instructor who was a British Airways captain at the time of the accident, grew up in Kent where he attended a private boarding school. After graduating in computer science he went straight into the RAF, winning a competition when flying a Jet Provost, and he was ranked a top-performing student and selected to become an instructor.

Training in combat, he took part in active service for a month in the 1990s, monitoring a no-fly zone in northern Iraq. He flew Harrier jets, capable of vertical take-off and landing, and won an award for ideas on improving aircraft safety procedures.

He became a commercial pilot with Virgin Atlantic before moving to British Airways and becoming a captain.

• This article was amended on 9 March 2019 to clarify in the second paragraph that Hill no longer works as a British Airways captain. </s> A deadly New York City helicopter crash has prompted regulators to temporarily ground flights that have the doors open and that use tight seat restraints that could trap people in emergencies.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the ban Friday amid concerns such harnesses prevented passengers from escaping when their helicopter plunged into the East River on Sunday, killing five people.

The FAA says the ban applies to helicopters that fly with doors open, often so passengers can take pictures, and use harnesses that can't be quickly released. The agency says the flights must stay grounded until the restraints are fixed.

Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro says divers had to cut passengers out of their harnesses. The parents of one crash victim call the harnesses a 'death trap.'

The FAA 'will conduct a top-to-bottom review of its rules governing these flights to examine any potential misapplication that could create safety gaps for passengers,' it said.

Helicopter flights with the doors open provide passengers with a more direct view of the skyline than flights with the aircraft's doors shut.

On Wednesday, family members of one of the five victims in Sunday's crash filed a lawsuit against the aviation company, FlyNYON and the tour group Liberty Helicopters.

In a lawsuit filed by Trevor Cadigan's family, the members claim the company did not provide enough knives to help remove the passengers from their nylon harnesses, leaving them stuck, according to TMZ.

Cadigan, 26, died, as well as Daniel Thompson, 34, Tristan Hill, 29, Brian McDaniel, 26, and Carla Vallejos Blanco, 29.

The family further alleged in the suit that the sole survivor in the crash, pilot Richard Vance, 33, was not able to 'maintain proper control' of the helicopter.

He also 'failed to properly perform emergency procedures' and did not 'properly secure personal items within the helicopter,' the gossip site reports of the suit.

On Tuesday, the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner revealed all five victims aboard died by accidental drowning.

The medical examiner's office came under fire Tuesday by victim Hill's family for refusing to allow them to view his body.

The victim's brother, Brendan Hill, said his family was 'devastated' after Chief Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson blocked them from seeing him, according to the New York Daily News.

Sampson said they wanted to provide a picture of his body to confirm his identity, but the family turned her down.

'My parents fought over a long period of time before they would allow us to view the body. We told them we're not (settling for a photo),' Brendan Hill told the local newspaper.

The five passengers on board the helicopter drowned to death after finding themselves trapped upside down by their harnesses.

Cadigan was a journalist and his friend, McDaniel, was visiting him from Dallas, where he worked as a firefighter.

Blanco was a tourist from Argentina, while Hill worked for a sightseeing startup and Thompson, a chorus singer.

Divers searching the crash site found the passengers still strapped into their tight-fitting harnesses.

The harnesses, which had kept them safe while they were in the air, ultimately prevented their escape, the New York City Fire Department revealed yesterday.

Rescue divers found them dozens of feet below below the water inside the capsized chopper, said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro.

'It took a while for the divers to get these people out. They worked very quickly, as fast as they could,' Nigro said.

'It was a great tragedy that we had here.'

A law enforcement source noted how the harnesses did 'too good a job'.

'The harness, which was supposed to keep them strapped in while they're taking pictures, also kept them locked in while they were underwater,' they told the New York Post.

'It did too good a job. They couldn't free themselves,' the source said.

The helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350, crashed into the water around 7.06pm on Sunday near East 90th Street and Roosevelt Island, in the waters just off of Gracie Mansion.

Pilot Vance escaped the crash moments after impact, but the five passengers were trapped inside, unable to escape from their safety harnesses as the helicopter flipped and sank, police said.

The water temperature was just 39 degrees at the time of the crash.

Two passengers died at the scene and three were transported to hospitals in critical condition, said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro.

Those three were all pronounced dead in the hospital, fire officials said early Monday.

Hill moved to the city a few months ago to work as the director of operations at sightseeing company SightSy.

He planned to marry his fiance Eda Ozmen, a yoga instructor, back in Reno, Nevada, where the Singapore-born man grew up, on May 26.

Thompson was president of the non-profit organization Young New Yorkers' Chorus, where he had performed since 2008 as a member of the mixed ensemble.

Cadigan also a recent transplant to the city, moving in October to intern at Business Insider.

His friend McDaniel, also 26, was on a trip to visit his longtime friend.The two both attended Bishop Lynch High School together.

Cadigan got a degree in journalism from Southern Methodist University while his friend went into firefighting.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also looking into whether an emergency flotation device on the helicopter deployed properly.

The floats are supposed allow a helicopter to stay upright, rather than overturning and submerging.

NTSB member Bella Dinh-Zarr said Monday it will be some time before that finding is made.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, is calling on the Federal Aviation Administration to suspend Liberty Helicopters' operating license until the facts of the crash are known.

Schumer said Monday the tour and charter company shouldn't fly until officials 'get to the bottom of this.'

Video shows the dramatic moment the helicopter landed in the water, flipped, and then began to sink into the 39-degree waters.

A few moments later, witnesses saw the pilot surface with a yellow raft. He was rescued by a tug boat.

Part of the reason why it took so long to pull their bodies from the sunken wreckage was because they were strapped in with special harnesses that had allowed them to lean out and take pictures of the city while the doors of the helicopter were open.

'One of the most difficult parts of the operation, we're told, was the five people, besides the pilot, were all tightly harnessed,' said Commissioner Nigro.

'So these harnesses had to be cut and removed in order to get these folks off of this helicopter.' </s> KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An Indiana woman whose husband and three children drowned when a duck boat sank in a Missouri lake during a July storm is asking in a federal lawsuit that the owners of the amphibious vehicles stop manufacturing or operating them in the U.S. and other countries until they are redesigned to be safe.

Tia Coleman, of Indianapolis, filed the lawsuit Tuesday against Ripley Entertainment and five other companies that manufacture and operate the Ride The Ducks tourist attraction.

Besides her husband and children, Coleman lost five relatives on the boat. Seventeen people died when the boat sank July 19 at Table Rock Lake in Branson. Coleman lost nine of 11 family members on board.

Coleman is seeking financial damages but the lawsuit does not specify the amount. Two other federal lawsuits have been filed in the case, which seek hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Ripley Entertainment did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This statement was posted on the company’s website prior to this lawsuit:

Ride The Ducks Branson remains deeply saddened by the tragic accident that took place in July. An event like this profoundly touches everyone. The business has not operated since the incident so we can take time to focus on our guests, employees, and families who were affected by the accident. We remain committed to supporting our guests, families, and employees who were affected. To assist families in their time of need, we continue to offer to pay for all related medical bills, funeral expenses, and grief counseling. Interested family members should contact Carolyn McLean at c​a​r​o​l​y​n​.​m​c​l​e​a​n​@​k​g​l​o​b​a​l​.​c​o​m. We want to thank you for your messages offering comfort and compassion and have joined us in offering prayers and support. Our hearts continue to go out to all that have been affected. We offer our sincere condolences to them and to the entire community of Branson, Missouri. </s> The family of a man who was killed in a fiery crash involving a Tesla Model X vehicle plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the car company over allegations of a faulty Autopilot system, according to an announcement by a legal firm representing the family.

San Mateo resident Walter Huang, 38, suffered major injuries and later died after his 2017 Tesla collided with a median on Highway 101 in Mountain View on March 23. Vehicle logs recovered by Tesla showed that Huang had been using the vehicle's Autopilot function at the time of the crash, when the vehicle hit a cement barrier between Highway 101 and the Highway 85 carpool flyover, according to the company.

In an online post Wednesday, the law firm Minami Tamaki stated that the family intends to file the wrongful death suit against Tesla, and could potentially extend the suit to any subcontractors involved in the design and construction of the Autopilot system. An early review by the law firm indicated that the Autopilot system installed in the Model X may have misread painted lanes on the roadway, failed to detect the concrete median and failed to brake the car, according to the post.

"The firm believes Tesla's Autopilot feature is defective and likely caused Huang’s death, despite Tesla’s apparent attempt to blame the victim of this terrible tragedy," the law firm said in a statement.

The company lists grounds for the suit including liability, defective product design, and intentional and negligent misrepresentation.

In a blog post last month, Tesla officials said the company reviewed the crash and found that Huang had Autopilot engaged in the moments before the crash, and that he had ignored "several visual" and one audible warning to take the wheel again. The vehicle did not detect Huang's hands on the steering wheel during the six seconds prior to the collision, according to the blog post, and he had "about five seconds and 150 meters of unobstructed view of the concrete divider."

Tesla doubled down on the argument that Huang was largely at fault for the crash, noting that the "only way for this accident to have occurred is if Mr. Huang was not paying attention to the road, despite the car providing multiple warnings to do so."

"The fundamental premise of both moral and legal liability is a broken promise, and there was none here," according to the statement issued to media outlets Wednesday. "Tesla is extremely clear that Autopilot requires the driver to be alert and have hands on the wheel. This reminder is made every single time Autopilot is engaged."

In the weeks following the crash, Tesla officials have emphasized the strong safety track record of the company's Autopilot technology, citing statistics showing that crashes are far less likely to occur when Autopilot is active. The company cites statistics gathered by a federal traffic safety agency showing that the first iteration of Autopilot, released a year ago, reduced crash rates by about 40 percent, and argues that the technology has only gotten better since then.

"The reason that other families are not on TV is because their loved ones are still alive," Tesla officials said in the statement.

Both Tesla and the aggrieved family have also pinned blame on Caltrans for allegedly failing to maintain a safety guard, known as an attenuator barrier, at the location of the crash that could have reduced the impact of the crash. Tesla officials claimed, shortly after the accident, that the barrier had "either been removed or crushed" in a prior accident and had not been replaced. The Minami Tamaki law firm also said the family "may" file a lawsuit against the California Department of Transportation for what it calls dangerous conditions of public property. </s> There’s not a day that goes by that Tia Coleman, a survivor of the tragic duck boat accident at Table Rock Lake, Missouri, doesn’t think about the nine family members she lost in the July incident.

On Tuesday, just over a month after the accident, Coleman filed a federal lawsuit against Ripley Entertainment Inc., the parent company of the Ride the Ducks tour and the duck boat manufacturer, according to the . She is asking for $300 million in financial damages as well as the end of Duck Boat manufacturing and operation, the Indianapolis Patch reported.

“This tragedy was the predictable and predicted result of decades of unacceptable, greed-driven and willful ignorance of safety by the duck boat industry,” Coleman’s lawyer explained in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Missouri, the reported.

Tina, whose husband Glenn Coleman, 40, daughter Arya Coleman, 1, and sons Evan Coleman, 7, and Reece Coleman, 9, all died after the boat capsized, said she hopes taking legal action can help make sure “these boats can never be allowed to kill again,” according to a statement obtained by the

RELATED: Lawyer Reveals Ride the Ducks Boats Involved in Other Fatal Accidents: ‘They Are Sinking Coffins’

“I know that nothing can ever bring back my family,” Coleman explained in the statement. “But I hope that through the justice system — and citizen action to ban deadly duck boats— we can spare other families the kind of unimaginable pain and heartbreak I live with every day.”

During a press conference at her home in Indianapolis, Coleman said, “I still wake up expecting to roll over and see my husband in the bed or to hearing him in the bathroom getting ready for work. I was in the bed and I woke up because I heard the bus outside and I almost yelled ‘Hurry up your going to miss the bus,’ but then I realized they won’t be getting any more busses.”

Only Coleman and her 13-year-old nephew survived the accident. His mother, Angela Coleman, 45, and brother, Maxwell Coleman, 2, were also among the nine Coleman family members who died.

RELATED: The 17 Victims of the Tragic Duck Boat Accident Identified

Sadly, the Coleman family was not supposed to be on the boat. Tia told KOLR that she and her family initially missed their boat after going to the wrong duck boat business. However, when they made it to the Ride the Ducks company, they were allowed to switch their tickets to that specific boat ride.

One day after the accident, Coleman opened up about the terrifying experience.

“I couldn’t hear screams, it felt like I was out there on my own,” Coleman said. “And I was yelling, screaming and finally, I said, ‘Lord, just let me die, let me die, I can’t keep drowning, I just can’t keep drowning.’ And then I just let go.”

RELATED: Duck Boat Survivor Says Captain Told Them ‘Don’t Worry About Grabbing the Life Jackets’

Out of 31 passengers, 17 died. Ride the Ducks also released a statement regarding the accident.

“Ride The Ducks Branson remains deeply saddened by the tragic accident that took place in July. An event like this profoundly touches everyone. The business has not operated since the incident so we can take time to focus on our guests, employees, and families who are affected by this accident.”
Relatives of the 66 people killed in the crash sue Apple alleging that an overheating iPad caused the disaster.