Posted on 01/16/2004 6:17:06 PM PST by Hillarys Gate Cult
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A jury found an airplane parts manufacturer negligent in the 2000 plane crash that killed Gov. Mel Carnahan and his son, and awarded their family $4 million.
The Carnahan family's attorney argued that a pair of vacuum pumps made by Parker Hannifin Corp. failed, causing the plane to crash. Killed were pilot Randy Carnahan, his father and Chris Sifford, a longtime aide to the governor.
The jury awarded compensatory damages of $3 million for Mel Carnahan and $1 million for Randy Carnahan. The jury did not award any punitive damages.
``Justice was served today,'' said Mel Carnahan's widow, Jean Carnahan. ``My son was found not responsible for the death of my husband.''
Attorneys for Parker Hannifin, based in Cleveland, argued that the vacuum pumps did not fail, and blamed the crash on the failure of the pilot's attitude indicator. The indicator tells a pilot whether the plane is banking and whether the nose is high or low. That failure, on a rainy night, caused Randy Carnahan to become disoriented, the company said.
The Carnahans' attorney, Gary Robb, had asked the jury to consider awarding the family $100 million.
Lorrie Paul Crum, spokeswoman for Parker Hannifin, said the company did not plan an appeal.
``It's clear to us that this was a compromise verdict,'' Crum said. ``We came here not for money but to vindicate Parker's good name, and we feel that's been accomplished with this verdict.''
The family has settled with several other defendants for a combined total of more than $1 million. Crum said the amount that Parker Hannifin has to pay the Carnahans will be reduced from $4 million by the amount the other companies have already paid. She estimated that would be between $2.6 million and $2.8 million.
Carnahan, a Democrat, was killed Oct. 16, 2000, en route to a campaign appearance during his race for the U.S. Senate seat then held by Republican John Ashcroft, now U.S. attorney general.
Carnahan remained on the ballot and posthumously won the election. His Senate seat was filled by Jean Carnahan until the 2002 election.
During the trial, Robb told jurors that federal investigators found that Parker Hannifin vacuum pumps failed in 20 other plane crashes, killing 46 people, between 1981 to 1998. He said the company knew the pumps could fail but continued to make them until shortly after the Carnahan crash.
The company sent warnings to install a backup system for the vacuum pumps and said it frequently urged the Federal Aviation Administration to make the backup systems mandatory, but the government agency declined to do so.
Parker Hannifin's attorney, Mitchel Kallet, told jurors that a federal investigation found the pumps were probably working at the time of the crash but that one attitude indicator was not
BTW, I worked for Parker Aerospace years ago.
No, and as someone who was lucky enough to know Chris, I'm wondering if his life was deemed worthless. Pity, that.
You have to use altimeter changes to keep the plane level, and the whiskey compass (which bobbles around a lot) and/or an electric turn/bank to keep the wings level. Its tough enough to keep it straight and level, let alone to try a fly an approach down to the airport in soup. It's part of the IFR training though.
OK, everybody, read the official NTSB Report.
"The pilot's failure to control the airplane while maneuvering because of spatial disorientation."
Basically, his partial-panel skills were not up to flying safely when his attitude indicator failed. He had alternative instruments but he failed to use them properly. If you go into the in-depth narrative, or download the complete PDF, you learn:
The pilot indicated to ATC several times that he was having problems with the airplane's primary attitude indicator. He also told ATC that he was trying to use the right-side attitude indicator, which indicates that the airplane did not experience a total vacuum system failure. Examination of the wreckage revealed rotational marks in the left and right engine vacuum pumps, which indicates that they were most likely functioning at the time of impact. Further, one of the vacuum gage system failure indicator buttons exhibited evidence of having been in almost the fully retracted position (the other indicator button was found in the partially retracted position), which indicates that adequate vacuum existed for the airplane's instruments to operate.
In other words, the vacuum pumps, which were the subject of this bit of trial lawyers' extortion, reported above, were working fine when the plane hit the ground. The failure was in one attitude instrument. The pilot failed to use a spare he had (which, by the way, is a luxury; you learn to keep the shiny side up on needle, ball and airspeed if you lose the attitide indicator). The pilot failed to notice that airspeed had climbed to 300+ knots. The pilot failed to notice the vario unwinding. The pilot just plain failed.
Then there's the whole question of whether he had done the training he said he had. He didn't enter anything in his logbook in the last five months of his life. Hot tip: careless, lackadaisical people make lousy pilots.
Bottom line -- you can always pay lawyers to bamboozle people into saying anything, but any pilot who reads the report can see that Roger Carnahan was tested and was found fatally wanting. It might make the greedy widow dance to be able to slough it off on some hapless company. Let's quote another line from that report:
Radar data, ATC transmissions, and other evidence indicate that the pilot lost control of the airplane at 7,700 feet as he was making a climbing right turn.
That company's product was working perfectly until it ceased to function because incompetent Roger slammed it through a stand of trees into the cold, cold, hard rocky ground at "a velocity of over 300 knots." Just because she can pay some lawyers to lie about it, and fool a jury -- which is not given access to the NTSB report -- into believing them, doesn't change the facts.
This wasn't an aviation accident. This was murder-suicide. By means of incompetence.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
And like you say, it's part of training. When the guy lost it, he was supposed to be straight and level, not on an approach. His airspeed gage indicated 300+, that should have been a clue.
No sympathy for this schmuck... I feel sorry for the pax that trusted him, and the companies that have their reputation smeared to give him an undeserved, posthumous social promotion and give the widow a warm fuzzy.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Two words: "peremptory challenge"
Oprah wins.
Amen.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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