Robert J. Spragg

Partner

Robert J. Spragg joined Kreindler & Kreindler LLP in 1991 and became a partner in 1998. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University in 1981. He graduated from Rutgers Law School-Newark in 1991, where he served as Senior Articles Editor of the Rutgers
Law Review.

He previously served in the United States Marine Corps as a Naval Aviator from 1981 to 1988, where he was a CH-46 helicopter Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) and focused in Night Vision Goggle (NVG) utilization, Terrain Flight (TERF) and Evasive Maneuvering (EVM). Mr. Spragg was a designated Mission Commander and served as an instructor at Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1). He was also a designated No-Fly-Line Instructor for the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea.

Mr. Spragg focuses on aviation litigation and has been involved in numerous airline, commuter, military and general aviation crash cases, including:

• the crash of American Airlines flight 587 at Belle Harbor, New York, on which he served as a member of the Plaintiffs' Committee
• the crash of Swissair flight 111 near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, on which he also served as a member of the Plaintiffs' Committee
• the Eurocopter model BK-117 helicopter crash at the 60th Street Heliport in New York City
• the crash of Comair flight 3272 near Monroe, Michigan
• the TWA flight 800 crash off Long Island, New York
• the Bell model 212 helicopter crash near Cozurnel, Mexico
• the Bell model 412 helicopter and Piper Aerostar mid-air collision over Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania
• the United Airlines flight 811 in-flight decompression near Honolulu, Hawaii
• and the crash of Korean Airlines flight 007 in the Sea of Japan.

He is presently working on litigation arising out of:

• the crash of American Airlines Flight 587
• the crash of a Eurocopter AS350 sightseeing helicopter near the Grand Canyon
• the crash of a Cessna Citation 560 near Pueblo, Colorado
• the crash of a Cessna 177A in South Hackensack, New Jersey
• and the crash of a Sikorsky S76C+ helicopter in the Baltic Sea near Tallinn, Estonia.

Mr. Spragg concluded a corporate helicopter crash case that resulted in one of the largest aviation wrongful death settlements on record ($28.5 million). In June, 2001, he successfully convinced a Texas Court of Appeals to twice reverse the trial court's dismissal of claims brought by the family of an Air Force pilot killed in a crash in 1991.

Mr. Spragg was extensively involved in the actions brought for:

• the wrongful deaths of a famous R&B star who was killed in the crash of a Cessna 402B in the Bahamas in 2001
• a United States Senator from Pennsylvania who was killed in a midair collision near Philadelphia in 1991
• the President and COO of the Walt Disney Company, who was killed in a helicopter crash in Nevada in 1994
• and the Chief Technological Officer of the Colgate-Palmolive Company, who was killed in a helicopter crash in New York's East River in 1997.

He has litigated cases involving the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and DC-9, Boeing 747 and 737, Airbus A300, Embraer EMB-120, Fokker F-28, Cessna 172 and 402, Cirrus SR22, Piper Aerostar and Lear 24, as well as numerous helicopters, including the Bell 206,212,412 and UH-IN, Sikorsky H-60 and S76, Boeing CH-46, Robinson R-22, Hughes 369, Eurocopter BK117 and AS350.

Mr. Spragg is admitted to the bars of New York and New Jersey and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of New Jersey. He has appeared pro hac vice in numerous state and federal courts throughout the United States.

Mr. Spragg is a member of the American Bar Association and its Aviation Litigation Section, the New York State Bar Association, and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.