Each Blames The Other For Fatal Injury Of Two People

Seattle television station KOMO and its the contractor that supplies helicopters and pilots to the station are blaming each other for an accident which occurred in March of 2014 that fatally injured the two people on board the aircraft and seriously injured two people on the ground.

The Seattle Times reports that Jeffrey Lieber, vice president of operations for Helicopters, Inc., the contractor, said during a legal deposition that the pilot, Gary Pfitzner, was not type rated for commercial operations in the Eurocopter AS350B2 "AStar" aircraft he was flying that day. He had been flying a Bell helicopter for years for the station, but the Eurocopter was a temporary replacement for the Bell.

Liber said in his deposition that because of Pfitzner's relative unfamiliarity with the Eurocopter, the company felt he should operate from Renton Municipal Airport for a better safety margin.

But Lieber said that the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the parent company of KOMO, put pressure on Helicopters Inc. to have the aircraft refuel at the station's helipad 75 feet above the city streets to save money on fuel.

Sinclair tells a different version of the story. They say that the contractor and the pilot always had the final say on decisions made during the flight.

The landing at the helipad went bad, and the helicopter fell from the helipad to the street. Phitzner and cameraman Bill Strothman were fatally injured. Two motorists were also injured. They are Guillermo Sanchez and Richard Newman. They are involved in a civil proceeding that is being heard in King County Superior Court. It is from that proceeding that the new details are emerging.

The two motorists have separately sued Sinclair Broadcasting, Airbus, Helicopters Inc. and Phitzner's estate.

(Image from file)

FMI: Original report