damn Lawyers!
Piltdown man said it exactly.
It amazes me that a respected professional body can carry out an accident investigation, but then the lawyers and court totally disregard the report and make up their own answer.
There is clearly no proven fault of the aircraft manufacturers. They already designed an improvement which the owner didnt fit. It is clearly the owner/pilot's responsibility to ensure that the cap is securley fastened before flight.
However, even if the fuel cap did cause the propellor to loose a tip, resulting in vibration, this surely doesnt render the aircraft unflyable and thus cannot be the cause of the accident.
My sympathy goes out to the relatives and friends of the victims. But they have no right to get money from the manufacturers.
So my sympathy also to Rans INC and all of the owners and fans of their aircraft who may loose out because of this action by greedy lawyers.
Hopefully they wont be able to get the money