Spurr, Dale Jay

Robert J. Spragg joined Kreindler & Kreindler LLP in 1991 and became a partner in 1998. He became Of Counsel to the firm in October 2011. 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 specialized 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 is a specialist in 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 and as Plaintiffs' Liaison Counsel; 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 Cozumel, 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 Continental Connection Flight 3407 near Buffalo, New York, the crash of a Eurocopter EC135 medevac helicopter at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., and the crash of a Beech 1900C airplane in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

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 and A340, 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- 1N, Sikorsky H-60, S76 and S61, Boeing CH-46, Robinson R-22, Hughes 369, Eurocopter BK117, AS350 and EC135.

Mr. Spragg recently 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 is admitted to the bars of New York and New Jersey and the United States District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of New York and the District of New Jersey. He is also admitted to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. 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 Federal Bar Council.