Designers Sued In C-130 Crash Suit Filed By Families Of 5 Killed And Sole Survivor In 1996 Flight

Lockheed Martin Corp. and Allison Engine Co. were accused of negligence and defects in the design of the C-130 cargo plane in a lawsuit filed Thursday by some of the families of Air Force reservists killed in a crash last year.

The complaint filed by the families of five of the 10 crewmen killed, as well as by the crash’s sole survivor, asks for a jury trial to determine the merits of claims against Lockheed Martin, based in Baltimore, and Allison Engine, based in Indianapolis.

“We’re looking for a safer Reserve; we’re looking for a safer Air Force,” said Laura Wellnitz, widow of Kirk Wellnitz.

A spokesman for Lockheed declined comment, while Allison Engine officials did not return phone calls.

Eleven members of the 939th Rescue Wing based at Portland International Airport were on a training flight to San Diego on Nov. 22, 1996, when the engines of the HC-130P rescue plane stopped running and repeated efforts to restart them failed.

The plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean 40 miles off Northern California, and only the radioman, Tech. Sgt. Robert Vogel, survived.

The complaint alleges that “negligence in the design, supply, service and post-marketing warnings of the aircraft caused the death(s) …”

It also says the crash resulted from the “design, manufacture and sale of defective products unreasonably dangerous to the user …”

Under federal law, damages are not specified in the initial complaint, which is required to serve notice to the defendants as the first step in the lawsuit. Details will be filed later, said Keith Tichenor, lawyer for Vogel and the five families.

He said the main goal of the lawsuit is to protect other pilots and crews. “I hope safer airplanes come from it,” Tichenor said.

Wellnitz and two other widows of crew members said they also want the manufacturers and the Air Force to accept some responsibility for the crash.

“It brings me peace of mind just knowing these manufacturers are going to be held accountable for the deaths of our husbands,” said Susan McAuley, widow of David McAuley.

Wellnitz accused the Air Force of trying to protect its contractors rather than its pilots and crews and promised to keep up pressure to improve the safety of the C-130 fleet.

The Air Force said its investigation failed to determine why the engines didn’t draw enough fuel to run.

But the Air Force is reviewing the safety of the entire 700-plane fleet of C-130s after pressure from Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore.