Claim Improper Maintenance, Faulty Design Led To Mishap

It's something you might not think about very much, but lawsuits involving the families of aircraft that go down during wartime are not unheard of. Now, the widows of three servicemen killed when their MH-53 Pave Low went down in Afghanistan two years ago are suing defense contractors.

Melissa Walters, Kara Kerwood and Yvette LaPointe-Plumhoff maintain the Pave Low's auxiliary tanks failed to jettison, according to the Associated Press, which contributed to the engine failure that brought the aircraft down on November 23, 2003.

The aircraft was carrying 13 passengers and crew members on an infiltration mission when one of its twin engines failed. The other engine was unable to successfully power the aircraft at that altitude... and the pilots attempted an emergency landing. They tried to jettison the aux tanks, but were unable to do so, according to the US Air Force report on the accident.

Then, as they continued efforts to bring the aircraft safely down to the ground, they lost the second engine. The MH-53 landed on a riverbank, rolled over and burst into flames. Eight of the soldiers on board were able to get out of the aircraft safely. The remains of the other five were so badly burned that no positive identification could be made. They're buried at Arlington National Cemetery in a common grave with a single headstone.

Three of the widows are suing Sikorsky, makers of the MH-53 -- as well as Lear Siegler Services and Smiths Aerospace, the two companies that installed and maintained the external fuel tanks.

The Air Force accident report says there wasn't enough written guidance available to the pilots for checking the status of the fuel tank jettison system. But, like an NTSB report, that's not admissible in court.

The suit accuses Lear Siegler and Smiths of failing to instruct military maintenance personnel on how to properly check the aircraft, to ensure the jettison system's electrical components function properly. They also say the system was at fault because there was no alternative way to jettison the tanks.

Lear Siegler denies any responsibility for the crash. Smiths says it's still trying to figure out whether it installed the aux tanks in the first place, but has started a review.

"To date, we have not identified any problems with this equipment," said company spokeswoman Jennifer Villarreal.

Sikorsky says it's not responsible for any misuse of the aircraft by Air Force pilots.

FMI: www.sikorsky.com, www.urscorp.com/EGG_Division/lsi/, www.smithsaerospace.com