The family of Michael Gigliobianco has hired Beasley Allen’s aviation accident lawyer Mike Andrews to investigate an aircraft accident that killed Mr. Gigliobianco and another man last April.
“Unfortunately, aviation crashes take time to complete because of the complex nature of aircraft, so it is hard for victims’ families to have to wait for answers,” Andrews said. “The family retained our firm to assist in the investigation phase of this process, and we look forward to helping them find answers and justice for Mr. Gigliobianco’s death.”
Around 8:14 p.m. on April 9, 2020, Mr. Gigliobianco, 70, and Glenn Lamb, 68, both from Myrtle Beach, took off in an Arion Aircraft LLC Lightning LS-1 fixed-wing airplane from Myrtle Beach Airport, en route to Mount Pleasant Regional Airport-Faison Field about 65 miles away. At around 10 p.m., a witness called local law enforcement and reported hearing an aircraft engine “spool up and cut out.” Authorities responded and found the plane’s wreckage in a heavily wooded area about a half-mile from the Mount Pleasant airport runway. Both Lamb, a student pilot who recently purchased the aircraft, and Mr. Gigliobianco, a flight instructor, were killed. No other passengers were on board.
According to air traffic control communications and radar data provided by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the pilot had requested a touch-and-go landing at Mount Pleasant, a maneuver common when learning to fly a fixed-wing aircraft.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated the crash. The Arion Aircraft Lightning LS-1 involved in the aircraft accident is described as an experimental, amateur-built, light-sport airplane.
Aviation law
Beasley Allen lawyer Mike Andrews focuses much of his practice on aviation litigation. Mike is an aviation accident lawyer and has represented people seriously injured in various aviation accidents similar to the one described in this story and the families of those killed in both civilian and military airplane crashes and helicopter crashes. He currently represents families of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 victims involving the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
