Survivors Settle Suit Over Crash Of Helicopter For $14 Million

ANCHORAGE - Victims of a 1992 logging helicopter crash that killed six people, including a Washington man, have settled a federal lawsuit for $14 million.

The wreck, among the worst helicopter accidents in the United States over the past 15 years, occurred in the Tongass National Forest near Hobart Bay, about 75 miles southeast of Juneau.

Lawyers for the victims' families said yesterday the settlement came three weeks into a jury trial in federal court in Juneau.

Phillip Weidner, an Anchorage lawyer who pursued a wrongful death and personal-injury case on behalf of two of the loggers, said the settlement with Utah-based Rocky Mountain Helicopters was "justice" for the survivors.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigation issued soon after the wreck Feb. 23, 1992, said at least two survivors reported hearing a loud bang just before the helicopter spiraled into the trees.

Weidner said trial evidence blamed the accident on an unweighted 30-foot cable that was left dangling from the helicopter's belly. The aircraft went down when the cable became caught in the tail rotor.

The cable was intended to discharge static as the helicopter hovered, plaintiffs' lawyers said. An unweighted cable left in that position during flight was a violation of safety regulations, Weidner said.

Killed in the crash were co-pilot Matthew R. Burton, 32, of Lincolnton, Ga.; Wayne A. Gudbranson, 36, of Blaine, Whatcom County; Roger Miller, 48, of Salmon, Idaho; Alan Schmitt, 37, of Thorne Bay; and brothers Mike Kluver, 38, and Randy Kluver, 30, both of Libby, Mont.

The men were skilled cutters called in to fell trees whose timber was valued at $20,000 or more, Weidner said. "They were the top 10 percent of the top 10 percent," he said.