Helicopter Crash Lawsuit Filed in Waco Texas
WACO, Texas — Relatives of three soldiers killed in an Army helicopter crash sued the owners and operators of a television tower, claiming broken warning lights on the tower created a hazard.
Seven soldiers from Fort Hood died in November 2004 when their helicopter plummeted to the ground on a foggy morning after apparently striking cables supporting a TV transmission tower near Waco, Texas. The tower’s warning lights were knocked out in a storm the week before and were not operating and in need of repair. The helicopter crash lawsuit alleged that failure to adequately and promptly maintain the lights created “a dangerous hazard to nearby aircraft, including the helicopter in which plaintiffs were passengers,” it said.
Those named in the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in state district court in McLennan County, include Centex Television Limited Partnership, which owns KXXV-TV in Waco. A television station official declined to comment. Representatives who answered the phone at Centex said the company had no comment. Army investigators said last year that the fatal crash was caused by the pilots’ attempt to fly under visual flight rules in poor weather conditions.
The lawsuit was filed by family members of Chief Warrant Officer 2 David H. Gardner Jr., 32, of Mason City, Iowa, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Mark W. Evans Jr., 27, of Jacksonville, Fla., who were the Black Hawk’s pilots; and Capt. Todd T. Christmas, 26, of Wagon Mound, N.M.. Others killed include Chief Warrant Officer Doug Clapp, Colonel James Moore, and Brigadier General Charles B. Allen.
Texas Trial Lawyer, David P. Willis of the Willis Law Firm along with Attorney, Nelson J. Roach of the Nix Patterson & Roach Law Firm represent three families of those killed in the Army helicopter crash. A wrongful death lawsuit against the television tower owners has been filed because of their negligence in maintaining lights on the TV transmission tower which resulted in seven deaths — when the military helicopter hit one of the cables early one foggy morning and crashed in November 2005 outside Waco, Texas.
