Thursday, February 7, 2002

9 families sue over cargo plane crash The Associated Press MIAMI - Families of nine National Guardsmen killed in a Georgia plane crash sued the aircraft's manufacturer and other companies Tuesday, saying malfunctioning equipment rather than crew error was to blame.

Twenty-one Guardsmen died when the C-23 Sherpa cargo plane crashed near Macon, Ga., on a flight from North Florida to Virginia in March 2001. Two other families sued in Jacksonville on Friday.

Military investigators blamed the crash on the crew for improper loading, but the general who ordered the inquiry later blamed bad weather and equipment malfunctions.

''I don't believe the reports, and I don't think they're right,'' said attorney Mike Eidson, who filed the suit at federal court in Fort Lauderdale. ''You don't usually get this kind of disagreement between the board and the general who formed the board.''

The defendants are Montreal-based Bombardier Inc. and its subsidiary, plane maker Short Brothers PLC; Duncan Aviation Inc. of Lincoln, Neb.; and Rockwell International of Milwaukee and its former subsidiary Rockwell Collins Inc. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Officials at the companies said they had not seen the lawsuit. and had no comment on it.

Short Brothers made the plane in Northern Ireland, Bombardier converted the civilian plane for the military in Bridgeport, W.Va., Duncan helped with the conversion and handled maintenance, and Rockwell made an allegedly defective autopilot, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit claimed the plane's new configuration had not been tested. It also said the weather radar maintained by Duncan was not working properly and didn't alert the crew to a thunderstorm that the plane flew into.

''We filed this lawsuit to put the blame of this accident where it belongs,'' Eidson said. ''We intend to exonerate the crew by proving that the crash was not their fault.''

A three-member crew from the Florida Army National Guard based in Lakeland was flying 18 members of the Virginia Air National Guard home from the Florida Panhandle after a two-week training mission in Florida.

The suit was filed by the families of crash victims Ernest Blawas, Andrew H. Bridges, Ronald Elkin, James P. Ferguson, Mathrew E. Kidd, Michael Lane, Dean J. Shelby, Gregory Skurupey and Richard Summerell.

http://www.gainesvillesun.com/articles/2002-02-06dd.shtml

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-- Anonymous, February 17, 2002