WIDOWS FILE SUIT OVER TANKERS.Byline: Steve Geissinger Sacramento Bureau SACRAMENTO - Self-described ``tanker widows'' filed a lawsuit Friday in federal court that accuses the Forest Service and five other U.S. agencies of allowing a contractor to fly a faulty military-surplus firefighting plane that crashed and killed their loved ones loved ones npl → seres mpl queridos loved ones npl → proches mpl et amis chers loved ones love npl , including a Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, resident. Relatives of the most recent victims in a series of U.S. air tanker crashes - crashes that threaten to ground the remainder of the aging fleet essential to protecting arid Southern California - are among those expected to join in the lawsuit or file their own. Attorneys plan, in part, to cite the government's own independent reports that found U.S. Forest Service safety and contracting standards unacceptable. A representative of the U.S. Forest Service, which has been defending its aerial firefighting Aerial firefighting is a method to combat wildfires using aircraft. The types of aircraft used may be either fixed-wing or helicopters. Agents used to fight fires may be either water or specially-formulated fire retardants. program, was not immediately available for comment Sunday. The Forest Service and its co-defendants, the Agriculture, Interior and Transportation departments, the Bureau of Land Management and the Federal Aviation Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), component of the U.S. Department of Transportation that sets standards for the air-worthiness of all civilian aircraft, inspects and licenses them, and regulates civilian and military air traffic through its air traffic control , have not filed formal responses. The complaint, filed in the 10th U.S. District Court in Wyoming by a Missoula, Mont., legal firm, says that ``for many years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time defendants (federal agencies) have either neglected to, or failed to, properly provide the required updated maintenance schedules, repair techniques and procedures.'' Government agencies ``were completely responsible as the plane underwent extensive and improper modifications to serve as firefighting bomber aircraft List of bomber aircraft is organized by grouped years, countries, and bomber aircraft type. 1914–1918
The new lawsuit supersedes an earlier one filed solely against the private contractor operating one of two air tankers that broke up in midair and crashed in 2002. Co-pilot Milton Stollak of Cathedral City died in that crash in Colorado. Steve Geissinger, (916) 447-9302 sgeissinger(at)angnewspapers.com |
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