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Widow of Dave Fiji, an Indian-origin Delta pilot who died in a helicopter crash minutes after his wedding, filed a lawsuit against the helicopter company.
Four months after Dave Fiji, an Indian-origin Delta pilot, lost his life in a helicopter crash minutes after his wedding, Jesni Sam, the Georgia bride who survived the crash, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the wedding venue and the helicopter company, alleging that the helicopter should have never taken off in the detriorating weather conditions.
Dave even warned that they should not fly but the flight was not rescheduled.On September 22, lawyers representing Jesni Sam filed a complaint for damages and claimed that the companies did not assess the worsening weather conditions and they were negligent in their decision to continue with the flight. The helicopter's pilot Nikil Nargundkar was also killed in the crash. . Sam was seriously injured and remained trapped in the wreckage for several hours before rescuers freed her.“In a matter of minutes, Jesni went from celebrating the happiest day of her life to experiencing something almost impossible to comprehend,” said Andrew Robb, partner at Robb & Robb LLC, the firm representing Sam, in a statement.Sam and Fiji had been married at The Revere, a wedding and events venue in Dawsonville, Georgia. After their reception ended at around 9:30 p.m., the couple boarded a Robinson R66 helicopter for a planned "helicopter send-off" to Peachtree-DeKalb Airport, from where they intended to continue to an Atlanta hotel.
According to the lawsuit, the flight was operated by Prestige Helicopters and arranged through the wedding venue. The helicopter struk tall trees, followed by an impact with terrain in a heavily wooded area.Fiji's family previously said he had expressed concerns about the weather before the flight. “He said I wouldn’t fly, we would not fly in this visibility,” his dad told WSB, adding that the pilot planned to fly at a higher altitude.“Initially, it was going to be called off because of weather concerns,” his mother Phebah Fiji said. “However, when the chopper came in, the pilot was very confident that it wouldn’t be an issue, even though it had started raining.”The crash left Sam trapped inside the wreckage. According to the lawsuit, she remained there for nearly six hours with her husband's body on top of her. Rescue teams eventually located the wreckage and freed her shortly before 3 am on May 30.
