“Wings should not come off in flight,” the wrongful death and product defect suit says.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES, January 31, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A catastrophic structural failure that caused an airplane’s wing to fall off mid-flight left aerospace engineer Nathan Precup (pictured below) and three others dead in November 2022. Danielle Martin, Precup’s widow, has filed suit against the companies that designed, manufactured and maintained the faulty Cessna 208B EX Caravan in which Precup and all other crew members died.

Witnesses reported seeing the plane fall apart in midair just before its fatal plunge into a field in Snohomish, Washington. While examining the wreckage, NTSB investigators found that the Cessna’s right wing fell off mid-flight.

Precup, 33, of Seattle, was working as part of Raisbeck Engineering’s flight testing program for Raisbeck’s aerodynamic drag reduction system. The airplane was undergoing a series of baseline flight tests when the crash occurred. In addition to Precup, the other victims were the two pilots, and the test director.

A talented photographer and avid outdoorsman, Precup spent more than a year in Antarctica to deploy and operate the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization Array microwave telescope in 2019. Before that, while earning his graduate degree, he was the operations manager for the University of Washington’s Kirsten Wind Tunnel.

Martin’s wrongful death and product defect suit seeks to hold Cessna parent company Textron Aviation Inc., of Wichita, Kansas, accountable for the flaws that led to the fatalities. The suit also names maintenance company Ace Aviation, Inc., aircraft components maker Mistequay Group, Ltd., and aerodynamics equipment design firm Raisbeck Engineering, Inc.

Wisner Baum attorneys Ari Friedman and Timothy Loranger filed the complaint (available here) in King County Superior Court in the state of Washington (Case No. 24-2-02236-8-SEA). “Companies that manufacture and maintain aircraft that fly over our communities must ensure the aircraft can withstand normal flight operations,” Friedman said. “When that failure costs lives, those companies must take responsibility for the devastation they cause.”

Daniel Laurence from Seattle firm Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore is co-counsel on the case.

Wisner Baum represents over 18,000 plaintiffs in a broad range of civil litigation and has won more than $4 billion across all practice areas, including aviation accidents, commercial transportation cases, pharmaceutical product liability, class action litigation, mass torts, and more. The firm has earned a reputation for breaking new legal ground, holding major corporations accountable, influencing public policy, and raising public awareness about important safety issues.

L.J. Williamson
Newsroom PR
lj@newsroompr.com
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