Missouri Accident Lawyer Blog

Updating a story that we have been following, the cause of the plane crash that killed two pilots near Kansas City has been released. The official cause of the crash was dual engine power loss.

The National Transportation Safety Board released an accident report on Thursday that outlined the details of the crash. The plane had been on training exercises and had made stops in Topeka and Lawrence before heading to a “practice area” for maneuvers. The Aero Commander then did a series of sharp turns at low altitudes when the engine power failed.

Murray Brown, 47, and James Jambor, 24, who were the pilots on board, apparently tried to land the plane in the Leavenworth County field where they crashed. The landing gear was down and the flaps were at an approach setting, but the plane hit the ground at a too severe 53-degree angle.

Both men were pronounced dead at the scene.

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Posted In: Missouri Airplane Crashes , Missouri Personal Injury Lawyer News , Personal Injury News

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Photo from KY3 News / Mark Parent

Two people were injured Sunday morning when their aircraft failed to successfully take off and ran over the end of the runway at Taney County Airport.

The owner and pilot of the plane, Gary Grandpre of Crete, Illinois, was taken to Skaggs Health Center in Branson along with his wife, whose name was not released, according to a KY3 report. Both suffered moderate injuries. Their children, who were also in the plane, were uninjured.

The plane, which was a Cessna Skymaster, appeared to lose power during takeoff. Witnesses say the plane was briefly airborne before falling back to the runway and blowing out a tire. The aircraft skid over 800 feet and off the end of the runway.

The FAA will look into the cause of this incident and whether a mechanical error was to blame.

This is the second Skymaster crash in the past month. In June, a Cessna Skymaster went down off the coast of Maine, killing both the pilot and a passenger. That crash is still under investigation.

Some pilots have commented on the unique design of the Skymaster and how it may be more difficult to fly if you are not used to it. If an engine loses power, it is very had to maintain control of the aircraft and glide it to a safe landing.

The Bradley Law Firm handles Missouri and Illinois aviation matters including jet and prop planes, as well as helicopter cases. If you have any questions regarding your aviation case, contact us for a free consultation.

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Photo by KQTV, St. Joseph

Murray Brown, 47, and James Jambor, 24, were killed Tuesday when their twin engine Aero Commander plane crashed in Leavenworth, Kansas shortly after taking off from a downtown Kansas City airport, Kansas Highway Patrol said.

Both men were pronounced dead on the scene. Brown and Jambor were the only passengers on board.

The plane was owned by Central Airlines, a cargo shipping company with 36 twin engine planes in their fleet. A statement released by the company said Brown, who had 20 years of experience as a pilot, was doing a training exercise with Jambor when the plane went down.

While the cause of the crash is not yet known, the Aero Commander model has been under scrutiny from the FAA over safety concerns in the past. According to a Civil Aviation Safety Authority report, senior FAA officials met with engineers in the mid 90’s to examine concerns over the Aero Commander’s wings, which seemed to be prone to cracking from stress fatigue. This wing instability was believed to have caused several fatal crashes.

The Aero Commander model in the Kansas crash was built in 1971, according to the patrol report.

FAA and NTSB officials will no doubt look into the wing stability as well as countless other possibilities as they investigate the cause of the crash. These investigations are extremely important as they can reveal mechanical defects that can be corrected in other aircraft so that similar crashes can be avoided.

The Bradley Law Firm handles aviation matters, including jet and prop planes as well as helicopter cases. If you have any questions about these types of cases, please contact us.

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On May 25, 2008, a MD500E helicopter crashed around 7:20 p.m. in Sunrise Beach, Missouri within Camden County. The helicopter was landing at a lakeside residence after a short sightseeing tour around the Lake of the Ozarks, when it suddenly spun out of control and barrel rolled into the water. Five people were on board, including 9-year-old Zachary West of Eureka, Missouri, who died in this tragic crash. Divers recovered his body at 10 a.m. the following day trapped inside the wreckage.

Four others, including the pilot, escaped as the MD-500 helicopter rolled into the water. The pilot was identified as Keith Baker, 50, of Sunrise Beach, MO. His passengers included his son, Nick Baker, 13, along with his friend Michael Barth, 13, and Anna Bierman, 24, of Macks Creek, MO. Each of them jumped from the helicopter after it hit the water and swam to shore.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the accident. The MD-500 helicopter is manufactured by McDonnell Douglas and is considered a light helicopter, largely used in the civilian sector and modeled after the military Hughes chopper.

An eerily similar incident occurred in 1997 near Guam when the cyclic trim switch malfunctioned in an MD-500, which caused the pilot to lose control of the helicopter and barrel roll into the water. In that incident, one of the two passengers was killed. It was determined the helicopter's cyclic trim switch was field modified and this is what caused the crash. Interestingly, this switch was the subject of a mandatory service notice for MD-500s in 1994, requiring replacement of the trim switch due to reports the switch was sticking. However, the switch was a non-repairable item, which called into question why the switch was taken apart. The NTSB cited operator failure to comply with the safety bulletin and flying with an equipment discrepancy as the causes of the Guam crash.

In the Lake of the Ozarks crash, it is expected the cyclic trim switch will be looked at to determine if it played any role in this crash. The pilot will undoubtedly be the best source of what went wrong and will be able to point investigators in the right direction.

In aviation cases, it is extremely important to determine the cause of each and every accident so it does not happen again.

The Bradley Law Firm handles aviation matters, including jet and prop planes as well as helicopter cases. If you have questions about these types of cases, please contact us.

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A V-tailed Bonanza passenger airplane crashed near Springfield, Illinois in Sangamon County today. The four seat aircraft was attempting to land at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport, when it crashed approximately a hundred yards from the Farmingdale Road and Highway 54 intersection.

At this time, authorities say at least three men were killed in this Illinois airplane accident. Initially, it was thought a fourth man was in the airplane, however no other victim has been found. Nobody on the ground was reported to be injured.

The names of the victims has not been released and it is not yet apparent if they have been identified. State police and the FAA responded to further investigate.

When the victims are identified, we will update the blog.

Witnesses indicate they saw the airplane looping towards the ground. This often times indicates something went wrong with the aircraft. The FAA will conduct an investigation and determine the cause of the crash.

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A Missouri pilot and his passenger were killed in an airplane crash near Labelle, Missouri. Stevens Walker, 71 was the pilot of the Zodiac 601XL, an all metal "kit airplane", manufactured by Zenith Aircraft Co. According to the Missouri Highway Patrol, the plane crashed nose first into a field. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have not yet released their determination of why the plane went down.

Here is a picture of what the plane looks like, according to the manufacturer's web site:

At this point, it is unclear whether there would be a viable Missouri product liability case for the family's lawyer to file against the airplane company. If investigators find the kit plane was defectively designed, then a product liability claim for airplane design defect may be viable. However, if the reason the plane crashed was because of some failure to properly assemble the plane, then a lawsuit would probably not be viable.

If you or a loved one have been involved in an airplane crash and believe you may have a claim, contact us at The Bradley Law Firm to discuss your case for free.

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Posted In: Missouri Airplane Crashes

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