File - This Aug. 7, 2008, file photo shows the wreckage of a Sikorsky S-61N that crashed, killing one crew member and eight firefighters seconds after takeoff while ferrying firefighters from a remote helipad on the Buckhorn Fire in Trinity County back to base camp near Junction City, Calif. Jurors could return a verdict Tuesday, March 27, 2012 in a case that asks them to decide whether a problem with an engine was responsible for a 2008 crash.(AP Photo/Redding Record Searchlight, Greg Barnette, File)
File - This Aug. 7, 2008, file photo shows the wreckage of a Sikorsky S-61N that crashed, killing one crew member and eight firefighters seconds after takeoff while ferrying firefighters from a remote helipad on the Buckhorn Fire in Trinity County back to base camp near Junction City, Calif. Jurors could return a verdict Tuesday, March 27, 2012 in a case that asks them to decide whether a problem with an engine was responsible for a 2008 crash.(AP Photo/Redding Record Searchlight, Greg Barnette, File)
FILE - In this Aug 9, 2008, file photo, Jonathan Forheich, left, 18, and Michael Brown, right, 20, both firefighters from Oregon who survived a helicopter crash in a remote Northern California forest, leave UC Davis Medical Center, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008, in Sacramento, Ore. Jurors could return a verdict Tuesday, March 27, 2012 in the case that asks them to decide whether a problem with an engine was responsible for the 2008 crash.((AP Photo/The Sacramento Bee, Florence Low, File) MAGS OUT, TV OUT, NO SALES, MANDATORY CREDIT
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) ? An Oregon jury ruled Tuesday a problem with an engine was responsible for the 2008 crash of a helicopter that killed nine firefighters during a wildfire in Northern California.
The jury in Portland reached its verdict after a pilot who survived and the widow of one who was killed sued General Electric for $177 million.
The plaintiffs argued the company knew the engines it made for the Sikorsky S-61N helicopter had a design flaw making them unsafe.
GE countered that the helicopter crashed because it was carrying too much weight when it took off after picking up a firefighting crew on the Iron 44 wildfire on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest near Weaverville, Calif.
"They're heroes," said plaintiff's attorney Greg Anderson of the pilots, William Coultas and Roark Schwanenberg. "They saved as many people as they could. They have been pilloried before this."
The chopper was airborne less than a minute when it clipped a tree and fell from the sky, bursting into flames.
Four people survived, including Coultas, of Cave Junction.
The plaintiffs and their families in court on Tuesday dabbed their eyes and exchanged stiff handshakes with GE's attorneys. They declined to speak with reporters after the verdict was read.
After a two-year investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded in 2010 that too much weight and a lack of oversight caused the crash.
The lawsuit was brought by Coultas, his wife and the estate of Schwanenberg, who died.
The jury on Tuesday awarded $28.4 million to the estate. Coultas was awarded $37 million and his wife $4.3 million by the jury.
The jury put most of the blame ? 57 percent ? on GE, but also found the helicopter's owner and its manufacturer partially at fault.
A Carson Helicopters representative said the company would release a statement late Tuesday afternoon. Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press on Tuesday.
A GE Aviation spokesman said the company will appeal the verdict, though it must first "look at the (verdict's) full language."
"We strongly disagree with the verdict," said Rick Kennedy, spokesman for GE Aviation of Cincinnati. "Our position has been all along that this verdict completely contradicts findings by the NTSB."
Anderson argued during the trial in Portland that GE knew for at least six years that there was a problem with a fuel control valve on the engine, The Oregonian reported. But rather than correct the problem, Anderson said, the company treated it like a service issue.
Anderson introduced as evidence a GE internal email from Aug. 6, 2008, the day after the crash, discussing the size of the fuel filter, noting that the military version removes much smaller particles than the commercial version.
GE attorney Kevin Smith argued that the helicopter crashed because it was more than 1,400 pounds overweight at takeoff, and that the pilots were relying on inadequate information about the weight and liftoff power provided by the owners of the helicopter, Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass.
Smith said sound spectrum analysis from cockpit recorders showed the helicopter was at full power when it hit first one tree and then another before crashing to the ground about 150 yards from the helipad where it picked up the firefighting crew to take them back to camp.
Besides pilot Schwanenberg, 54, of Lostine, the dead included Jim Ramage, 63, a U.S. Forest Service inspector pilot from Redding, Calif.; and firefighters Shawn Blazer, 30, of Medford; Scott Charlson, 25, of Phoenix, Ore.; Matthew Hammer, 23, of Grants Pass; Edrik Gomez, 19, of Ashland; Bryan Rich, 29, of Medford; David Steele, 19, of Ashland; and Steven "Caleb" Renno, 21, of Cave Junction.
The families of eight men who were killed and three who were injured reached out-of-court settlements with three of five defendants in multiple lawsuits filed after the crash.
Associated Pressinternational criminal court ios 5.1 apple tv update new ipad release pregnant jessica simpson international womens day new apple tv
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.