Families of victims in White Pass plane crash sue Cessna

The families of all nine passengers who died in a plane crash in October have filed lawsuits against Cessna, the maker of the aircraft that went down near White Pass, alleging the company knew of errors that contributed to the wreck.

Dean Brett, an attorney representing the families, alleges the company was aware the single-engine Cessna 208B Grand Caravan performed poorly in icing conditions. Also named in the lawsuits is Goodrich, which manufactured an anti-icing system for the plane.

"They had the numbers of each plane that had a miscalibrated warning system on it and did not contact the owners of those planes," attorney Dean Brett said Monday. "Our goal is to have the 208B decertified from flying in icing conditions."

The lawsuits ask for punitive damages and other damages of more than $25 million.

Brett's firm has teamed with a Chicago firm that also is handling several other lawsuits involving the Cessna 208B. The firms are involved in pretrial procedures in Kansas City, Kan., where several lawsuits against Wichita-based Cessna are currently in the discovery process, Dennis Craig, the father of crash victim Casey Craig, wrote in an e-mail.

"What we have discovered in that litigation is that Cessna faked the data to get the plane certified to fly in icing conditions," Dennis Craig alleges in the e-mail.

According to the suit, a Cessna training and engineering representative acknowledged in a deposition he fabricated some flight-training data "out of thin air," regarding the plane's operation.

Cessna spokesman Doug Oliver said Monday it's company policy not to comment on pending litigation. A report on the crash has not yet been issued by the National Transportation Safety Board.

American and Canadian aviation authorities have issued warnings that icing can pose problems for the Cessna 208- series aircraft. Oliver told the P-I after October's crash that the company believes the issue is pilot education, not the plane, which comes with de-icing equipment and is rated to fly in icing conditions.

Since the Cessna 208 was introduced in 1985, the company has sold nearly 1,700 planes, Oliver said. From 1985 to the Oct. 7 accident, records show that the Federal Aviation Administration has documented 56 fatal crashes involving the plane, popular for transporting cargo in rugged environments.