British Training Aircraft Maker Settles With US Air Force Cadet's Family After $4 Million-US, $2.7 Million Pounds, Verdict in Similar Case in Florida Court.

Business & Legal Editors

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 2, 2001

The Yorkshire-based manufacturer of a training plane linked to six Air Force Academy deaths in three years has narrowly avoided a second federal trial in U.S. District Court and reached a confidential settlement with the parents of a Massachusetts cadet killed in 1996.

The federal negligence suit filed by the parents of Dennis Rando was scheduled to go to trial this week, less than two weeks after a Miami federal jury decided after a three-week trial on Feb. 15 that Slingsby Aviation. Ltd., of Kirkbymoorside, made an unsafe plane, and awarded the parents of Pace Weber of Miami $4 million-US ($2.74 million pounds). The Air Force grounded Slingsby's T-3A Firefly training plane in 1997 amid a furor over the deaths of three cadets and three instructors and 66 documented cases of engine failure.

Although attorneys for Slingsby's insurers, Lloyd's of London, said they would appeal the Weber case, they settled with the Rando family before a second federal trial could begin as scheduled.

"Dennis Rando's family is pleased that this chapter has come to an end," said Wm. Andrew "Andy' Haggard of the Coral Gables, Fl., law firm Haggard & Parks, P.A., which represented his parents, Paul and Antoinette Rando, in the case. "The family is certainly appreciative of the insurance company's efforts to conclude the case. You never get over the grief, but this does bring closure to the legal chapter." (Paul and Antoinette Rando v. Slingsby et al., Case No. 98-2224. U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages)

In the Weber trial earlier this month, Mr. Haggard's partner, Robert L. Parks, said Slingsby made a dangerous airplane and knew it. He attributed the tragedy to an ill-designed, defective fuel delivery system and a plane with dangerous spin characteristics. Heat and altitude, he said, fatally hindered engine performance, causing vapor lock and engine failure. He said Slingsby balked at major redesign out of concern for costs. (Terri Weber as PR for Estate of Pace Weber v. Slingsby Aviation Ltd., et al. Case No. 98-2223. Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages.)

The families were also represented by Haggard & Parks associate Jeannete Lewis Bologna.

The U.S. Air Force ordered the 113-plane T-3A fleet from Slingsby in 1993 and placed it into service in early 1995. Unlike its predecessor, the T-41 (Cessna 172) - which never had a training fatality in 31 years - the T-3A could do spins, rolls, and other aerobatic moves.

Cadet Mark Dostal, 20, of Moraga, Calif., and his flight instructor Capt. Dan Fischer, 29, of Jupiter, Fl., were first to die, on Feb. 22, 1995. Cadet Dennis Rando, 21, of East Bridgewater, Mass., and his instructor, Capt. Clay Smith, 29, of Tampa, Fl., were killed in a similar crash on Sept. 30, 1996. Weber and his instructor, Capt. Glen A. Comeaux, 31, of Yorktown, Va., followed nine months later. The Air Force grounded its 113-plane T-3A fleet in July 1997, after the six deaths and 66 documented incidents of engine failure.

T-3A stories on the Web: Time: http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/01/05/time/thompson.html http://www.afa.org/magazine/world/1198world.html#anchorseven CNN: http://europe.cnn.com/2000/US/04/10/grounded.t3/