Among Junior and Jachel Pineda’s most treasured photographs of their father, Julio, one of five men killed in the Amazon cargo plane crash in Miami earlier this month, is one of him wearing his favorite red apron.
asserted
one → kill → apron
Embroidered on the front are the words Chef Mago – the “wizard chef” in English – and Julio is clutching a ladle and tending to a pot on the stovetop.
asserted
Julio → embroider → stovetop
The kitchen was one of the 75-year-old Cuban immigrant’s happy places, where he would cook for his family, his friends and his neighbors in the Hialeah community where he lived.
asserted
he → cook → community
He would feed and entertain them even after an exhausting shift for the aircraft cleaning company he was employed by.
asserted
he → feed → company
“It’s just who he was, an outstanding man who was well loved in his community, who would help people out with anything they needed, and someone taken from his family suddenly in terrible circumstances,” said Mark Lopez-Trigo, an attorney representing the Pineda family.
asserted
Trigo → ’ → family
Lopez-Trigo’s firm has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Amazon, its contracted operator 21 Air and other entities including the pilots over the deadly crash.
asserted
firm → file → crash
“It wasn’t just the food, or the magic tricks he’d perform for the neighborhood kids, or the candies he gave them,” Lopez-Trigo added.
asserted
Trigo → perform → them
“The person he was will be missed.
asserted
he → miss → ?
He loved his sons, he loved his grandchildren.
asserted
he → love → grandchildren
There’s a lot of pain for the family right now, they’re still in the grieving process.
asserted
they → ’ → process
Pineda’s funeral was on Sunday of last week, seven days after the Boeing 767 cargo aircraft landed too fast on the runway at Miami international airport on a flight from Puerto Rico, and crashed through a perimeter fence and into the van where Pineda was sitting.
asserted
Pineda → land → van
Four of his friends and colleagues of the Professional Ocean Services Corp cleaning company died with him, and two remain in hospital in critical condition.
asserted
two → die → condition
Three others, including the two pilots and a man in another vehicle, received minor injuries.
asserted
others → include → injuries
While many questions remain over the tragedy, and investigators from National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) say it could be months before their final report is ready, information that has emerged so far has leant weight to the lawsuit, Lopez-Trigo said.
uncertain
Trigo → remain → lawsuit
Officials have said evidence collected from the scene of the crash, including the aircraft’s black box flight recorder, suggest the pilots tried to abort the landing attempt and initiate a fly-around by increasing throttle speed, but the plane never became airborne again.
asserted
plane → say → speed
Filing the lawsuit compels the parties to preserve evidence, Lopez-Trigo said, with the aim of determining how the incident happened, and where any blame lies for the deaths.
asserted
blame → file → deaths
“Justice really comes in three forms, in our opinion,” he said.
asserted
he → come → opinion
“The first is being able to recover the body, recover some of the personal items, to be able to lay to rest somebody dear to their heart.
asserted
first → recover → heart
“The second form of justice is getting the answers to all of the questions that they have.
asserted
they → get → that
Why did the pilots make the decisions they did and make the mistakes they did?
asserted
they → make → mistakes
“And the third is to make sure this never happens again to anybody else,” Lopez-Trigo said.
asserted
Trigo → make → anybody
All five victims were Cuban immigrants who came to the US to make a better life for themselves and their families.
asserted
who → come → themselves
Pineda had been in the country since 2001 and, Lopez-Trigo said, and was still working at 75 because he loved the people and staying active.
asserted
he → say → people
“He’s not really the person who likes to sit and be inside all day.
asserted
who → ’ → ?
He’s a working man, it’s a hard, laborious job that requires manual labor and long hours, so yeah, he was definitely a hard worker,” he said.
asserted
he → ’ → labor
“You know, he was just trying to make a living and keep himself busy, just like the rest of us.”
asserted
he → know → us
The others killed were Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.
asserted
others → kill → ?
Lawyers for Yaraisi Santiso Morejon, Naranjo’s widow, filed an almost identical wrongful death lawsuit two days before the Pineda family, also arguing that the event was foreseeable, preventable and that multiple failures by Amazon, 21 Air and the pilots led to the disaster.
asserted
failures → file → disaster
Amazon, meanwhile, has severed its partnership with the cargo company.
asserted
Amazon → sever → company
In a statement, spokesperson Kelly Nantel said: “After the tragic incident last weekend, we’ve spent time supporting the investigation and reviewing some of the surrounding circumstances, and we’ve decided to pause our operations with 21 Air, the operator of Flight 7598.
asserted
we → say → Flight
“We’ll continue working to support the investigation and everyone affected.”
asserted
We → continue → investigation
A statement from 21 Air said, in part: “We are confident in our safety policies, procedures and training.”
asserted
We → say → policies
Lopez-Trigo said neither company has reached out to the family directly, but was not surprised given legal action was under way.
asserted
action → say → way
He said he has spoken with lawyers for the other families and expects to work with them.
asserted
he → say → them
“A rising tide lifts all ships, and what that means is there’s a concerted effort from everybody to make sure that the appropriate, correct justice is handed down for all these people that are affected,” he said.
asserted
he → rise → people
Robert Clifford, a veteran airline industry lawyer who is not involved in the Miami cases, said he expected the lawsuits to become consolidated at some future point, and that they would likely benefit from the NTSB’s willingness to immediately share what it knows.
“It’s very encouraging that the board is issuing this information earlier, and I can tell you that for years they did not,” he said.
asserted
he → involve → years
“Over the years there was so much criticism of the NTSB’s lack of transparency, and now this board, the chair Jennifer Homendy, is trying to change all that to where she’s giving the families a kind of silent voice and assurance that their interests are being properly protected.
asserted
interests → be → voice
“You know if the government ends up doing all the investigation for you, then that’s OK.
asserted
that → know → you
It sure as hell doesn’t hurt them.”
asserted
It → hurt → them
The Aporia
