Originally Posted by Kepi

Dera,
We were initially denied access to the wreckage by Martinaire's attorneys without a court order. My aviation attorney has never been in such a situation where he had so many obstacles in his discovery. We got the court order and an investigator from Aeroscope discovered that the turbine wheel failed. It was "textbook 101" findings in his words. An aviation expert investigator, looking at the engine log book, learned that turbine wheel was hot inspected or taken out and reassembled by Martinaire in Lansing a few weeks before my son's accident. That turbine wheel should have lasted for another 1800 hours. Instead, it lasted 30 hours. If that turbine wheel is not perfectly balanced, it is going to fail. I'm not a pilot or an aircraft mechanic. I'm just trying to understand what happened. I ORIGINALLY believed the NTSB report that my son got SD so I don't have a problem accepting the possibility that my son made a mistake. My wife did not buy it. The wording about the -2 degrees pitch is from the NTSB narrative which neatly explains THEIR conclusion of a normally operating engine. So yes, a pilot like yourself is going to think it makes sense and we can move on. Someone lied in the report that the engine was normal on inspection and the company that did the inspection was Pratt Whitney. I know that engine failed for a fact and I believe Martinaire is at fault.

As far as the attorney taking advantage of my emotions, that is not the case. He is working off of a percentage of collection, if any. He is not going to put his money into this investigation if he thought we didn't have a chance of finding a party at fault. The problem is that it comes down to workers' comp law protects Martinaire from being sued by an employee. In this case, it is my son's estate with me acting as administrator. So although we believe they are at fault, they are protected by those laws. My attorney has recommended that we drop the lawsuit. Martinaire will just hire a new pilot and continue in their same old ways. Just hope that if your son or daughter fulfills their dream of becoming a pilot, he or she doesn't work for such a company.

This system of the NTSB choosing whomever they want to help them investigate is faulty. I understand they are undermanned. There have been articles and television reports about this conflict of interest in their investigations. My lawyer tried to sue the NTSB 20 years ago on this item, but the lawsuit was thrown out because they make their own rules and they can ask any source to help them with their investigation. Even if it is the manufacturer of the engine that may have failed.

I want to thank everyone for their input. Be safe. Special thanks to Panzon for understanding my quest for the truth.