NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A voice recorder captured a "loud noise" in the cockpit of a helicopter shortly before it plunged into a Louisiana swamp last month, killing eight people, federal investigators said in a report released Thursday.

The family of an Alabama pilot who crashed and died in Louisiana last month has sued the helicopter maker in Montgomery federal court.

Beasley Allen files suit for family in helicopter crash.

Our firm settled a wrongful death case on October 22nd after a week of trial in an Alabama State Court.

Our firm filed a case recently that involved the death of a young wife and mother, who was electrocuted while working in a chicken house located on her property in Barbour County, Alabama.

Faulty Transmission Case Settles

Our firm tried a product liability case last month involving a seat belt system in a passenger car that failed in a single vehicle rollover. The case, filed in an Alabama state court, was against the car manufacturer and the supplier of the seat belts. Our clients were a husband and wife whose lives were changed forever as a result of this incident, which occurred in 2004. After 7 days of trial, the case was finally settled.

Testimony is scheduled to continue today in civil proceeds in Dallas County Circuit Court where a Dallas County man is seeking damages against Honda American Motors because of a one-vehicle accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down.

Wal-Mart will pay a $4 million judgment to Carolyn Thorne in a lawsuit stemming from a tire failure three years ago that caused a wreck and left the local woman paralyzed from her injuries.

A Montgomery woman who was paralyzed in a 2004 rollover crash that occurred when the tread on one of her SUV's tires separated has been awarded $4 million in a judgment against Wal-Mart, whose service center failed to spot the defective tire.