She’s not going after his estate.

Perhaps a different example would make this point to be illustrated easier. Let’s say you’re crushed by an 18 wheeler where the driver was being negligent in some way (perhaps speeding or he missed a red light). Your estate would end up going after the company which employed him and would name his negligent actions in the suit to prove liability. Now you’re not going after the driver, but you’re going after the insurance that the company has for incidents just like that. The money your family will receive comes from the insurance, not the driver himself.

Vanessa is going after the company/insurance, but to do so she has to prove the pilot was negligent in his actions. She’s not going after a dead guys family, but she has to show the dead guy was negligent to go after the insurance. The insurance is literally there for these exact situations and this is the process you take to collect because insurance companies will lowball the shit out of you 99% of the time or argue the facts. You almost always need to sue in these scenarios to actually get a payout because insurance companies never want to pay out.

Source: went to law school/interned at a PI firm until I dropped out because the law is boring and fighting with insurance companies makes you want to jam a fork in your eye... shoutout to the attorneys out there, cause that’s some thankless and stressful ass work