Jesni Sam, a nurse who survived the helicopter crash that killed her husband hours after their wedding in Georgia, has sued the venue that arranged the send-off and the company that operated the aircraft. Her lawyers filed a complaint for damages on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, in DeKalb County, naming three defendants: Prestige Helicopters Inc., The Revere LLC and Revere Group LLC.
Sam is suing individually and on behalf of the estate of her husband, Dave Fiji, 25. The couple had exchanged vows only hours before the helicopter went down on May 29, a crash that killed Fiji along with the pilot, Nikhil Nargundkar, 28. The filing comes nearly four months after the crash.
According to the suit, a proper evaluation of the worsening weather never happened at The Revere and Prestige Helicopters, which the complaint says were negligent in allowing the flight to go ahead. It claims the send-off should never have taken place in dangerous weather. The venue, the suit adds, had no proper safety standards and no plan to scrub the flight as conditions deteriorated — this despite the helicopter lifting off from a helipad on its own property. The allegations have not been proven in court.
Nargundkar is not named as a defendant. The suit alleges Prestige Helicopters is responsible for his actions.
“In a matter of minutes, Jesni went from celebrating the happiest day of her life to experiencing something almost impossible to comprehend,” Andrew Robb, a partner at Robb & Robb LLC, said in a statement.
Through the lawsuit, Robb said, Sam is seeking answers and accountability for what happened to her and her husband, and she intends to press for changes so no other newlywed couple endures the same thing. Her attorneys argue that a series of failures by those who put the couple in the air produced a crash that could have been prevented.
The Helicopter Send-Off
The Revere, a luxury wedding and events venue in Dawsonville, Ga., arranged the flight, billed as the “Helicopter Send-Off,” and Atlanta-based Prestige Helicopters operated it. Roughly 400 guests filled the ceremony and reception at The Revere, an evening that wrapped up around 9:30 p.m. A flight to DeKalb-Peachtree Airport in DeKalb County was to carry the newlyweds to a night at a downtown Atlanta hotel.
As rain and fog rolled in ahead of departure, Dave Fiji questioned whether the flight should happen at all. “He said I wouldn’t fly, we would not fly in this visibility,” George Fiji, Dave Fiji’s father, told WSB-TV. The pilot had said they would fly at a higher altitude, Sam later told her father-in-law.
Only minutes after takeoff, the aircraft — a Robinson R66 — crashed around 9:50 p.m., according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report, in a heavily wooded area not far from the venue. Neighbors said the wreckage lay on a 10,000-acre tract owned by the City of Atlanta and managed by the state as a wildlife management area. A report of a possible downed helicopter sent the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office out, and searchers needed time to pinpoint the wreckage, George Fiji said.
Six Hours in the Wreckage
Rescuers took nearly six hours to reach Sam, who was pinned in the debris, her father-in-law said. Her husband was lying against her chest when she regained consciousness beneath the wreckage, he said, and as a nurse she recognized that he had already died.
She suffered cuts and bruises but no broken bones. As of June 1, she was recovering at a metro Atlanta hospital and was expected to be released within days.
What Investigators Have Said
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation. Early evidence indicated the helicopter struck tall trees before hitting terrain in the wooded area, the agency has said. There was no post-crash fire, and investigators accounted for all of the aircraft’s major components.
As of June 1, an NTSB spokesperson said the agency’s meteorologists were conducting a weather study of the flight, and that preliminary information pointed to the potential for rain showers, low-level clouds and thunderstorms in the vicinity.
The NTSB’s preliminary report, released in late June, found no pre-impact problems with the aircraft and pointed to rain and possible thunderstorms, but did not determine a probable cause. Investigators said the pilot had passed all required flight tests and safety checks and was qualified to fly the helicopter. He earned his instrument helicopter rating in 2023, later received his commercial pilot certificate, and completed training and proficiency checks on the Robinson R44 and R66 in September 2025.
The NTSB says the investigation remains open. A final report expected in 12 to 24 months will detail a probable cause along with any contributing factors.
Andy Whitaker, director of operations for Prestige Helicopters, told WTOC the crash was unprecedented for the company, which he said had maintained a spotless flying record for decades. Whitaker added that the pilot had flown that same route several times.
The Couple and the Law Firm
Sam and Dave Fiji met more than a decade before the wedding, through church connections between South Carolina and Georgia. Dave Fiji had dreamt of flying since he was 10 years old and was working as a first officer for Endeavor Air, a Delta Air Lines subsidiary.
Robb & Robb LLC is Kansas City-based. The firm previously represented Vanessa Bryant in litigation over the helicopter crash that killed her husband, NBA star Kobe Bryant, their 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and several others.