Jury deliberating helicopter crash civil case

DES MOINES – A Polk County jury Friday began deliberating the outcome of legal battle stemming from a 2006 helicopter crash near Walford that potentially could result in one of Iowa's largest civil damage verdicts.

District Judge Donna Paulsen handed the complicated, multi-sided case to a seven-member jury shortly before noon after attorneys made their closing arguments and she rejected a defense motion for a mistrial in the month-long proceedings.

The jury of six women and one man will decide whether to award requested multimillion-dollar damages to the wife of a Kansas cameraman who died and two Iowa men who were seriously injured when a helicopter snagged power lines and crashed during aerial filming of “The Final Season” on June 30, 2006.

Kathryn Schlotzhauer, whose husband, Roland, 50, was killed in the crash, is seeking to recover actual and punitive damages in the range of $15 million to $20 million from Bristol Aerospace, a Canadian company that makes a special helicopter safety system; Hudson pilot Richard Green, now 75; and the movie's corporate owners.

Green and movie co-producer Tony Wilson, now 52, who both were seriously hurt in the crash and are both plaintiffs and defendants in the multiple civil claims being tried simultaneously, are seeking multimillion-dollar awards to cover their sizable medical costs, along with economic and emotional losses.

Green's damage request totaled nearly $2.8 million, along with emotional and personal costs ranging from $8.4 million to $14 million. While Wilson's attorney asked jurors to award his client nearly $5.3 million in damages.

Mark Tripp, an attorney for Bristol Aerospace, a Canadian company blamed by opposing counsel for 90 percent fault in the crash, denied contentions that Bristol's wire strike protection system was defective and ineffective in preventing the accident.

Tripp cited the company's safety record in blaming pilot error for the fatal mishap. He said Green's Bell Jet Ranger 206B helicopter was flying low enough that the two utility wires passed above the Bristol-mounted cutters, striking the rotor and control equipment and causing the copter to crash in a cornfield along Highway 151.

“I ask that you make a decision based on the facts in the case, but not the sound bites,” Tripp said in refuting claims that cost-saving redesigns that shortened a cutter and removed a serrated blade caused the safety system to fail. He told jurors the evidence against Bristol was “weak” and full of inconsistencies and discrepancies.

During rebuttal, Wilson attorney Kevin Driscoll said ‘we proved a product defect” and Scholtzhauer attorney Anita Robb argued the Canadian aerospace company “put profit over safety” by shortening a cutter and replacing a serrated blade with a smooth edge without telling customers like Green.

“The bottom line here is that Bristol almost created the perfect scam,” she told jurors. “Whether they get away with it or not is up to you.”

Before Friday's closing statements, the judge dismissed a female juror who became ill, reducing the panel to seven members. Under Paulsen's lengthy, 51-part instructions, jurors must reach the decision unanimously within the first six hours of deliberations; after that, a six-juror majority can decide a verdict assessing fault and individual damages.