What was supposed to be the beginning of Jesni Sam and Dave Fiji’s life together ended in tragedy just minutes after their wedding celebration in North Georgia.
The couple married May 29 at The Revere, a wedding venue near Dawsonville, Georgia. After the ceremony and reception, they boarded a Robinson R66 helicopter for a planned “helicopter send-off” from the venue’s property.
The flight was headed toward DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. According to the lawsuit filed by Sam on Sept. 22 in DeKalb County State Court, the helicopter took off despite worsening weather conditions.
About five minutes after departure, the helicopter crashed into trees in the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area, according to preliminary findings from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Fiji and the helicopter’s pilot, Nikhil Nargundkar, were killed. Sam survived but was trapped in the wreckage for nearly six hours before rescuers reached her, according to the lawsuit.
Her attorneys say she remained pinned beneath the wreckage with her husband’s body on top of her. The lawsuit describes serious injuries, including permanent scarring and continuing headaches.
Lawsuit focuses on weather conditions
Sam filed the wrongful-death and negligence lawsuit on her own behalf and on behalf of Fiji’s estate. The defendants named in the complaint include Prestige Helicopters Inc., The Revere LLC and Revere Group LLC.
The lawsuit alleges that the helicopter send-off should have been canceled or delayed because weather conditions had deteriorated before the flight.
Those allegations have not been proven in court.
Federal investigators had already identified weather as an area of interest in the crash investigation. A preliminary NTSB report described rain, low clouds and the potential for thunderstorms around the time of the accident. Investigators also reported that the helicopter struck tall trees along rising terrain before crashing.
The preliminary investigation did not identify an aircraft mechanical problem that caused the crash, and the NTSB has not issued a final determination on what caused the accident.
Family had raised concerns about the weather
Weather was reportedly a concern before the newlyweds departed.
Fiji was a pilot himself and had questioned the helicopter pilot about visibility, according to comments his mother, Phebah Fiji, previously gave to FOX 5 Atlanta.
The family later said the pilot appeared confident that the weather would not prevent the short flight.
The lawsuit now alleges that the helicopter operator and the wedding venue failed to adequately assess the conditions and lacked appropriate procedures for stopping the send-off when the weather became unsafe.
The complaint also alleges that the pilot failed to properly monitor the changing conditions and did not abort the flight.
Those claims remain allegations as the legal case moves forward.
A crash that changed the wedding night in minutes
Fiji and Sam had planned to leave the wedding venue by helicopter before spending the night in Atlanta. Instead, the flight ended in a remote wooded area, leaving Sam seriously injured and her husband dead.
Fiji, 25, worked as a first officer for Endeavor Air, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, and had previously worked as a flight instructor. His family and friends gathered for his funeral in Lawrenceville one week after the crash.
Sam’s lawsuit seeks damages and legal costs and argues that the crash could have been avoided if the weather conditions had been properly considered before the helicopter left the venue.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation remains ongoing. Until investigators issue a final report, the official cause of the crash has not been determined.
The Revere and Prestige Helicopters had not publicly provided a response to the lawsuit in the latest reports available.
