Romero v. Westwind Helicopters — U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana
LAFAYETTE, La. — [August 14, 2026] — A federal jury returned a full defense verdict on liability in favor of Westwind Helicopters on July 31, 2026, rejecting a $42 million demand after 37-minutes of deliberation.
The case, Romero v. Westwind Helicopters, No. 6:23-442, was tried before Judge S. Maurice Hicks in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. The plaintiff, a telecommunications contractor, was seriously injured when a Bell 407 helicopter transporting him from an offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico crashed after the pilot suffered an in-flight medical event. The plaintiff claimed that the pilot had experienced an earlier episode approximately 15-minutes before losing consciousness, and that he should have aborted the flight or returned to the platform.
The defense was tried by Ross Cunningham and David Denny of Cunningham Swaim, LLP.
Ross Cunningham – “the demand did not survive contact with the evidence, and it was never going to. Cases like this get settled every day for numbers nobody tests. Our client was resolute to try it, and thirty-seven minutes is what the jury thought of the claim.”
The verdict was reported as the lead item in the August 2026 edition of The Louisiana Jury Verdict Reporter (17 LaJVR 8), a neutral publication covering civil jury verdicts across the state.
Multiple Cunningham Swaim partners are members of the American Board of Trial Advocates, an invitation-only organization that admits lawyers on the basis of a verified record of civil jury trials tried to verdict. The firm represents airlines, aircraft manufacturers, operators, maintenance and repair organizations, component suppliers, pilots, mechanics and their insurers in matters involving fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and unmanned systems.
About Cunningham Swaim, LLP
Cunningham Swaim, LLP is a trial firm representing clients in aviation, insurance defense, business and catastrophic injury litigation, with offices in Texas, California, Colorado, New York, and Utah. The firm’s aviation practice specializes in catastrophic wrongful death and personal injury trials, product liability, and insurance coverage.
