The manufacturer of a helicopter that crashed in
Louisiana in 2009, killing eight people, has agreed to settlements with families of several crash victims who sued the company and had a trial set for next month, plaintiffs' attorneys said Thursday.
Stratford, Conn.-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has reached agreements with relatives of six victims who died and with the crash's lone survivor, according to the plaintiffs' lawyers. Many of those cases were resolved during a settlement conference Monday.
Paul Sterbcow, a lawyer for crash survivor Steven Yelton, said financial terms are confidential. Yelton suffered a serious brain injury in the crash and lives at a rehabilitation facility in Covington.
"We settled for an amount that will ensure Steven is fully taken care of, in terms of his custodial needs, for the rest of his life," Sterbcow said. "It's highly unlikely that he will ever live on his own again."
A federal trial in
New Orleans was scheduled to start Nov. 7 for relatives' claims against Sikorsky, but Sterbcow said the trial won't be necessary if the company settles remaining claims. Other relatives' claims against Sikorsky are pending in Alabama and
Texas and would be tried separately from the cases before U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in
New Orleans.
"We've settled the majority of cases and expect to settle the few remainders prior to the next scheduled court date," Sikorsky spokesman Paul Jackson said in a statement Thursday.
Investigators concluded a bird struck the Sikorsky S-76 before it crashed about 100 miles southwest of
New Orleans on Jan. 4, 2009, killing both pilots and six passengers. The helicopter had been carrying workers to a Shell Oil Co. platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
Investigators found the remains of a Red-tailed hawk on the remnants of the pilot's side windshield. They also found bird feathers under a windscreen seal and in an engine.
Victims' relatives also sued helicopter owner PHI Inc. and windshield maker Aeronautical Accessories Inc. in
New Orleans, but those claims already have been settled.
In August, PHI asked a federal magistrate to sanction Sikorsky for allegedly hiding a damning internal report to conceal its liability. PHI claims Sikorsky withheld the report by one of its lead engineers because his analysis concluded Sikorsky's faulty design caused its helicopter to crash near
Morgan City.
PHI said it wouldn't have paid as much last year to settle plaintiffs' claims if it had seen the report beforehand. The magistrate hasn't ruled on PHI's request for a court order requiring Sikorsky to reimburse PHI for 80 percent of its settlement payments to plaintiffs.
According to plaintiffs' attorneys, Sikorsky has settled with Yelton, who lived in Floresville,
Texas, at the time of the crash, and with relatives of one pilot and five passengers who died: Andrew Mauricio, of
Morgan City, La.; Allen Boudreaux Jr., of Amelia, La.; Jorey A. Rivero, of Bridge City, La.; Randy Tarpley, of Jonesville, La.; Charles W. Nelson, of Pensacola, Fla.; and Vyarl Martin, of Hurst,
Texas.
"It's been a long process, but I think all the parties are satisfied that this has come to a just and reasonable resolution," said John Denenea, a lawyer for Rivero's widow.
Martin and Thomas Ballenger, of Eufaula, Ala.; were the PHI pilots who died. The other passenger killed was Ezequiel Cantu, of
Morgan City.
A lawsuit over Cantu's death is pending in a
Texas state court. Chris Glover, a lawyer for Ballenger's family, said a lawsuit over his death is scheduled to be tried in December in an Alabama federal court. Glover said he has had settlement talks with Sikorsky, but not recently.