Families Of Two Of Those Fatally Injured Filed Suit Against The County

The Yavapai County, AZ Board of Supervisors is set to consider whether to settle a lawsuit stemming from an accident in 2006 in which five people were fatally injured.

Piper Cheyenne File Photo

The accident occurred when a Piper Cheyenne flown by William Friedman, the operations director for the Arizona Skyfest Air Show, was inspecting the landing gear of an airborne MiG-21. The others on board the plane were the Executive Director of the air show, along with a photographer and a former military pilot. The jet exhaust reportedly caused the upper section of the Cheyenne's vertical stabilizer to separate from the airplane, causing it to enter a dive from which Friedman was unable to recover. The NTSB listed the probable cause of the accident as "The failure of the pilot following a jet aircraft to maintain adequate separation from the high velocity jet core exhaust. The separation of the T-tail upper section vertical stabilizer of the following aircraft due to contact with the high velocity jet core exhaust was a factor."

The Prescott, AZ Daily Courier reports that the county supervisors must determine whether to settle the suit brought by the families of two of the passengers killed in the accident. The families hold that the county was negligent in how it handled the remains of the deceased. They say that they discovered human remains left at the impact site after they had been told that that the remains had been taken to the coroner's office and released for burial. The family members had been searching for the wedding ring of one of those killed in the accident.

MiG 21 File Photo

The county has denied that it mishandled the remains.

Other suits were filed claiming wrongful death, and those have reportedly been settled out of court.

FMI: www.co.yavapai.az.us