Suit Filed Over Helicopter Crash

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October 15, 2001

Suit Filed Over Helicopter Crash

Associated Press - October 15, 2001

Associated Press

10/15/2001

Kansas City attorney Gary C. Robb has filed suit against several defendants following a fatal helicopter crash over the Grand Canyon.

The sight-seeing helicopter was on a tour of the Grand Canyon on Aug. 10 when it crashed into the Grand Wash Cliffs near Meadview, Ariz. According to an Associated Press report, a preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board cited engine failure as a possible cause of the crash.

The pilot and five members of the Daskal family of New York were killed. The sole survivor was Chana Daskal, 25, who told authorities that the helicopter, an American Eurocopter AS350, “got quiet and fell from the sky.”

Chana remains hospitalized in Las Vegas with burns over 80 percent of her body, and her left leg has been amputated. Her husband David was killed in the crash.

NTSB investigators discovered metal splatter in the turbine, indicating that the engine became too hot and began disintegrating. But the NTSB said the findings were only preliminary and that a final conclusion about causation was nine months away.

Robb filed the lawsuit on behalf of the families on Oct. 4 in Las Vegas. Defendants include Turbomeca Engine Corporation, Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters and American Eurocopter Corporation.

This is not the first time that the helicopter engine’s manufacturer, Turbomeca, has faced Robb in litigation over a helicopter crash. In 1995, Robb & Robb LLC won jury verdicts of $70 million and $350 million against Turbomeca in the Life Flight helicopter cases tried in Jackson County.

The engine in the Daskal case is the same model involved in the Life Flight cases.

Bernadette Panzella, a New York lawyer advising the Daskal families, told Lawyers Weekly, “We interviewed aviation lawyers from all over — New York, L.A., Philadelphia. Given Gary’s prior record with Turbomeca, our decision was easy.”

Robb also currently represents Missouri Sen. Jean Carnahan and her family in their suit against Cessna and others following the death of former Gov. Mel Carnahan and son Roger in an October 2000 plane crash.

Categories:

Helicopter Accidents

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