Flair Airlines CFO indicted for manslaughter in connection to deadly US car accident

Chief financial officer of Flair Airlines, Sumanth Rao, is facing involuntary manslaughter charges related to a fatal crash involving an underage driver who had been drinking at his Atlanta-area home.

Flair Airlines stated in an email that they are aware of the situation and have implemented measures to ensure operational continuity as the court case unfolds against Rao, who was hired in August.

The district attorney for DeKalb County in Georgia announced that a grand jury indicted Rao, his wife, and the teenage driver of the SUV in which his daughter was a passenger.

The district attorney, Sherry Boston, revealed that Rao’s daughter and the 18-year-old driver were able to crawl out of the vehicle after it crashed on a residential road on Feb. 24, but passenger Sophia Lekiachvili succumbed to her injuries in the hospital.

Boston added that data from the SUV indicated that the driver, Hannah Hackemeyer, who faces charges of vehicular homicide and impaired driving, was speeding approximately 100 km/h over the limit and did not apply the brakes.

The district attorney’s office mentioned that Rao’s daughter and two friends had spent the evening at the family’s house, where the teens shared a bottle of wine in the kitchen in the presence of the parents who allowed them to leave for a drive shortly before midnight.

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