GE engine faulted for crash that killed nine firefighters

PORTLAND — An Oregon jury ruled Tuesday, March 27, that a problem with an engine was responsible for the 2008 crash of a helicopter that killed nine firefighters during a wildfire in Northern California.

The jury in Portland reached its verdict after a pilot who survived and the widow of one who was killed sued General Electric for $177 million.

The plaintiffs argued the company knew the engines it made for the Sikorsky S-61N helicopter had a design flaw that made them unsafe.

GE countered that the helicopter crashed because it was carrying too much weight when it took off after picking up a firefighting crew working the Iron 44 wildfire on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest near Weaverville, Calif.

The chopper was airborne less than a minute when it clipped a tree and fell from the sky, bursting into flames.

Four people survived, including plaintiff and pilot William Coultas of Cave Junction.

After a two-year investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded in 2010 that too much weight and a lack of oversight caused the crash.

The lawsuit was brought by Coultas, his wife and the estate of pilot Roark Schwanenberg, who died.

Their attorney, Greg Anderson, argued during the trial in Portland that GE knew for at least six years that there was a problem with a fuel control valve on the engine, The Oregonian reported. But rather than correct the problem, Anderson said, the company treated it like a service issue.

Anderson introduced as evidence a GE internal email from Aug. 6, 2008, the day after the crash, discussing the size of the fuel filter, noting that the military version removes much smaller particles than the commercial version.

GE attorney Kevin Smith argued that the helicopter crashed because it was more than 1,400 pounds overweight at takeoff, and that the pilots were relying on inadequate information about the weight and liftoff power provided by the owners of the helicopter, Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass.

Smith said sound spectrum analysis from cockpit recorders showed the helicopter was at full power when it hit first one tree and then another before crashing to the ground about 150 yards from the helipad where it picked up the firefighting crew to take them back to camp.

Besides pilot Schwanenberg, 54, of Lostine, Ore., the dead included Jim Ramage, 63, a U.S. Forest Service inspector pilot from Redding, Calif.; and firefighters Shawn Blazer, 30, of Medford, Ore.; Scott Charlson, 25, of Phoenix, Ore.; Matthew Hammer, 23, of Grants Pass, Ore.; Edrik Gomez, 19, of Ashland, Ore.; Bryan Rich, 29, of Medford; David Steele, 19, of Ashland; and Steven “Caleb” Renno, 21, of Cave Junction, Ore.

The families of eight men who were killed and three who were injured reached out-of-court settlements with three of five defendants in multiple lawsuits filed after the crash.