U.S. Army Black Hawk Helicopter Crash in Maryland
What Happened
The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was attached to the base’s 12th Aviation Battalion stationed at Davison Airfield, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. One soldier was killed in the crash and two other soldiers were seriously injured.
Immediately prior to the crash, witnesses claimed to have seen the helicopter flying in formation with three other military helicopters but lagging behind. One witness described the crash to TheBayNet.com.
We saw three helicopters. One of them was lagging behind the other two. It started spinning. At first we thought it was doing tricks.
Kreindler attorneys, many of whom are former military pilots, have extensive experience litigating military aircraft crash cases, including involving the Army Black Hawk. Military aircraft crashes can be uniquely challenging because the government contractor (in the case of the Black Hawk, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., formerly a division of United Technologies Corporation, now Lockheed Martin) enjoys unique defenses for any claims made that the aircraft was not properly designed.
Kreindler partner Justin Green, who is a former U.S. Marine pilot, along with partner Steven Pounian published a 2015 article on military contractors’ attempts to assert a preemption defense to a product design defect lawsuit involving military aircraft.
Kreindler successfully litigated the post-trial motions and appeal in a product liability lawsuit filed by survivors and family members of U.S. Army soldiers killed in a 1993 crash of a Black Hawk helicopter at the U.S. Army base in Weisbaden, Germany. Kreindler partner, Brian Alexander, who is a former U.S. Army pilot and was stationed at Belvoir, handled that matter as well as numerous other military crash cases along with partners Justin Green and Dan Rose, who is a former U.S. Navy pilot.