Airbus Sued Over Fatal Helicopter Crash In New Jersey

The victims’ families made claims for strict liability, negligence, breaches of express and implied warranties, wrongful death and survival against helicopter manufacturer Airbus, along with companies that maintained the helicopter and supplied the hydraulic system parts blamed for causing the crash.

The families of a pilot and a news photographer killed in a helicopter crash while working
for a Philadelphia television station have sued helicopter manufacturer Airbus, along with companies that maintained the helicopter and supplied the hydraulic system parts blamed for causing the crash two years ago in New Jersey.

The widows of pilot Monroe Smith and photographer Christopher Dougherty said the Airbus AS350B2 helicopter lacked a backup for the hydraulic system that helps the pilot control the aircraft and counter the aerodynamic forces that might otherwise make it drift or veer.

The helicopter’s sudden descent while banking to the left on its way back from a Dec. 19, 2023, assignment over Atlantic City, along with parts that appeared to have been broken or out of place before the crash, indicated that system had failed, their lawsuit said.

“The AS350B2’s hydraulic system is not redundant: there is no back-up system. If the system fails, the pilot must manually operate the helicopter and counteract enormously strong aerodynamic forces by brute strength. Manual control of the AS350B2, however, is exceedingly difficult, and often impossible,” said the complaint, filed Thursday in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas and made public Monday.

“The crash could and would have been avoided if defendant Airbus Helicopters, Inc. and defendant Airbus Helicopters SAS implemented redundancy into the AS350B2’s hydraulic system, designed and manufactured an appropriate hydraulic pump bearing, mandated more stringent inspection and replacement requirements for that bearing, and/or designed a helicopter that was more capable of being safely operated without hydraulic assistance,” the complaint added.

The families made claims for strict liability, negligence, breaches of express and implied warranties, wrongful death and survival against Airbus’s U.S. and European arms; helicopter operating Sterling Corp.; and the manufacturers and corporate successors, known and unknown, who made the parts of the hydraulic system that allegedly failed.

According to the complaint, aviation authorities in Canada and Australia had already called out the AS350B2 for its lack of a backup hydraulic system for its controls, while apparent defects in similar models had demonstrated the tendency to cause a particular bearing to seize up and snap the belt connecting the helicopter’s main gearbox to the pump for its hydraulic system.

“Despite such findings, defendant Airbus Helicopters, Inc. and defendant Airbus Helicopters SAS did not meaningfully modify their nonredundant AS350B2 hydraulic system, adequately warn users of these dangerous conditions, or remove the product from the market,” the complaint said.

The suit cited incidents reported in other models where the bearing froze up and the belt had broken, but those variants had backup systems that the B2 model allegedly lacked, and were thus able to make safe emergency landings.

The helicopter that crashed, which had the tail number N606HD and was used for aerial news photography by Philadelphia station WPVI since 2013, allegedly had earlier issues with the bearing blamed in the crash. The bearing had seized up and Sterling replaced it in 2019, the suit said.

“The January 2019 bearing failure occurred when the subject helicopter had a total of approximately 3,900 hours. The subject crash happened approximately 3,400 flight hours later, evidence that the bearing is insufficiently reliable to withstand such continuous use without repair or replacement,” the complaint said.

There had been hints of ongoing issues between the 2019 replacement and the 2023 crash, including alleged leaks of hydraulic fluid and a control in the cockpit indicating the fluid had been contaminated, the suit claimed.

When the helicopter crashed, it veered to the left of its previous flight path and descended into the woods of Hammonton, New Jersey, where it struck trees and caught fire, the suit said. A search of the wreckage did not find the belt between the gearbox and the hydraulic pump, which the complaint said was indicative that it broke prior to the crash and burned up in the subsequent fire.

In addition to or as an alternative to their claims against Airbus, the families also blamed Sterling for not better maintaining the helicopter to prevent the bearing from seizing, or parts manufacturer Goodrich Corp. and a string of corporate successors in America and Europe, for defectively making and overhauling the parts of the hydraulics and control systems.

Counsel for the plaintiffs and a representative of Airbus declined to comment on the suit Monday. Representatives of the other defendant companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Rosalyn Collins, administratrix of Smith’s estate, is represented by Brian Alexander, Anthony Tarricone and Kevin Mahoney of Kreindler & Kreindler LLP. Elaine Dougherty, administratrix of Christopher Dougherty’s estate, is represented by Robert J. Mongeluzzi, Andrew R. Duffy and E. Douglas DiSandro Jr. of Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky PC, and E. Douglas DiSandro Sr. of DiSandro & Malloy PC.

Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available Monday.

The case is Collins et al. v. Airbus Helicopters Inc. et al., case number 251202579, in the Court of Common Pleas for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.