Plaintiffs Abandon Wrongful Death Suit Stemming From Airplane Accident

On April 16, 2013, Jabiru Aircraft obtained an order of dismissal from the Superior Court of the State of Arizona in Heeswyk v. Jabiru Aircraft. The Van Heeswyk family had filed a wrongful death suit against Jabiru Aircraft (and several other defendants) for damages arising from the death of Gerard Van Heeswyk.  Gerard Van Heeswyk was killed in 2008 when he suffered a fatal crash of his home-built Arion Lightening kit equipped with a Jabiru engine. 

“The evidence that Mr. Van Heeswyk himself was responsible for the accident was overwhelming and unavoidable,” said Jabiru’s lead counsel, Alan L. Farkas of SmithAmundsen LLC in Chicago. "The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) seems to agree; it ultimately found that Van Heeswyk did not property torque the attachment bolts during assembly of the propeller, leading to the in-flight separation. “Unfortunately,” said Farkas, “facts rarely get in the way of a good lawsuit.”
 
“No matter how many opportunities we had to settle the case, we stood by our product and we were prepared to defend this case through trial," said Sue Woods, Jabiru’s Business Manager. "With hundreds of our engines performing flawlessly in the aviation community, we knew the engine just didn’t have the kinds of problems they claimed.” The case was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiffs.

FMI:www.jabiru.net.au