Late on Thursday, April 28, 2011 a jury in Franklin County, Missouri near St. Louis awarded $48 million in legal liability and punitive damages in an aircraft accident trial which resulted from a crash on July 29, 2006 at 1:45 p.m. CDT at Sullivan Regional Airport (UUV), near Sullivan, Missouri.
The fatal accident involved a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 100 Twin Otter aircraft, N203E, registered to Adventure Aviation, LLC, and operated by Skydive Quantum Leap as a local parachute operations flight, as reported by Fox4KC, the Daily Journal, Saint Louis Today, the Associated Press, USA Today, Beaumont Enterprises, the Ventura County Star, Missouri State News, the Times Union, and multiple other media sources on Friday, April 29, 2011.
The verdict, won by aviation attorney Gary C. Robb, is believed to be the third largest ever awarded in a Missouri airplane or helicopter crash.
Previously, Mr. Robb had obtained a $350 million verdict on behalf of a helicopter pilot who experienced an in-flight engine failure and a $70 million verdict on behalf of a 20-year-old woman who was a passenger on that flight, which crashed in 1993 when the woman was being airlifted to a Kansas City, MO hospital after being injured in a traffic accident.
The principal loser in this huge legal and monetary victory was Doncasters Group Ltd, a multinational corporation with offices in the UK, Continental Europe, and various locations in the United States, which used a different alloy in a compressor turbine blade than called for by Pratt and Whitney Canada, the manufacturer of the de Havilland DHC 6 100 engines.
The National Transportation Safety Board had cited in its report CHI06FA210 of January 29, 2009 that the principal cause of the accident was loss of engine power on takeoff, resulting from a fractured turbine blade that caused the aircraft to plummet into the ground, as shown in the attached slide show and video clip images.
Documents discovered by Mr. Robb and his team of investigators showed that the aircraft parts manufacturer was aware their turbine blade failed performance tests. The jury also learned of eight other engine failures due to the same part breaking.
Disregarding the problem, an official for the manufacturer testified that Doncasters planned to continue selling the part, which they marketed for half of its normal cost.
This deliberate disregard for the consequences of their actions apparently incensed the jury, which had listened to three weeks of evidence from air crash investigators, metallurgists and aircraft design engineers.
During takeoff of the doomed flight, the part broke causing the right engine to blow up. Witnesses reported, and a photograph also showed smoke and flames coming from the crippled engine moments before the 39-year-old plane, originally delivered on delivered on June 20, 1967, nose-dived and crashed. The crippled plane struck a utility pole and tree and landed near a house.
Those killed in the accident, all Missouri residents, included Victoria Delacroix, 22, of New London, Melissa Berridge, 38, of Maryland Heights, Robert Cook, 22, of Laquey, Rob Walsh, 44, of University City, David Pasternoster, 34, of Claycomo, and Scott Cowan, 42, of Sullivan, Missouri who worked as a pilot for American Eagle Airlines (MQ), had over 6,000 hours of flying time, was co-owner of Skydive Quantum Leap, and was piloting the plane when it crashed.
Two other passengers survived the crash, but were badly injured.
The jury awarded $28 million in punitive damages against Doncasters Group Ltd, and an additional award of $4 million each to five families for the loss of their child. A sixth victim, David Pasternoster, was not part of the lawsuit.
Attorney Robb, whose firm represented the victims, stated that the large settlement was a way for the jury to send a strong message to Doncasters for their reckless conduct. According to Mr. Robb, "This company just doesn't get it and that's why this jury had to punish them. It was all an effort to sacrifice safety for profit. Doncasters misled and manipulated the Federal Aviation Administration into obtaining approval of this aircraft engine part."
Also influencing the 7 women and 5 men who served as jurors was evidence that the eight people aboard the twin-engine plane knew it was going to crash and suffered 52 seconds of "pre-impact terror".
The attorneys for Doncasters made no comments on the decision, or indicated if they planned to appeal the ruling.
According to the Company's website, "Doncasters Group Ltd is a leading international engineering Group that manufactures precision components and assemblies for the aerospace, industrial gas turbine, specialist automotive, petrochemical, construction, industrial, transportation and recreational markets. The group excels in working with alloys and metals that are difficult to shape and form."
Tell us your thoughts. Please leave comments below or by email and subscribe to get future updates. There is also expanded coverage of other recent news articles. You may also wish to follow our dispatches as the News Analysis Examiner.
Comments