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The families of three Alaska Department of Natural Resources employees killed in a 2023 North Slope helicopter crash have sued the company that operated the flight, claiming negligence.
The suit was filed Feb. 18 in Alaska Superior Court in Utqiagvik against Maritime Helicopters Inc., a charter service based in Homer that operates across the state.
The families of Justin Germann, Tori Moore and Ronald Daanen, all of whom died in the crash, are requesting unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. They had been doing fieldwork the week of the crash.
An official at Maritime Helicopters’ headquarters declined comment when reached by phone on Wednesday. Online court records do not yet list an attorney.
A spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Law said the state is aware of the lawsuit but is not named as a defendant and does not intend to participate.
In July 2023, Germann, Moore and Daanen boarded a flight chartered by the state to perform fieldwork in rural parts of the North Slope. Their pilot was Bernard “Tony” Higdon.
The National Transportation Safety Board has published preliminary findings about the accident but hasn’t yet said what it believes caused the crash.
What is known is that their helicopter crashed into Lake Itinik, 30 miles east of the North Slope town of Wainwright, killing all four people aboard.
Although the helicopter had a live tracking system enabled, it took hours until the flight was declared overdue and more than a day before a rescue crew arrived on the scene.
In court documents, plaintiffs allege Higdon was flying below the minimum altitude permitted by the conditions and FAA operating specifications. They also allege Higdon and Maritime failed “to weigh the passengers and cargo before departing Utqiagvik” and failed to update the helicopter’s weight and balance after a subsequent stop.
DNR regulations prescribe minimum experience standards for any charter carrying state employees, and the lawsuit alleges “Maritime’s pilot … had recently joined Maritime as an employee and did not have the experience or flight time required by the state of Alaska to conduct the flight as per the contract requirements.”
The lawsuit states that the company should have known that its pilot lacked sufficient experience under state rules.
“Maritime’s choice to provide a contractually unqualified pilot demonstrates a reckless indifference to human life,” the lawsuit states. “The choice to violate the contract and sacrifice safety margins for profit is outrageous, was done with malice and bad motive, and evidences a reckless indifference by Maritime to the plaintiffs’ interests and safety.”
The case has been assigned to Judge David Roghair. No hearing date has been set.
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