Kansas City, Mo. — The families of the pilot and five sky divers killed in a Grain Valley plane crash will receive a $27.5 million settlement, a Jackson County judge has ruled.
Engine manufacturer Teledyne Continental Motors of Mobile, Ala., admitted no fault in the settlement and is to divide the money equally among the six families.
Lawyers said the $27.5 million was among the nation's largest pretrial settlements in the crash of a small plane.
Circuit Judge J.D. Williamson approved the settlement Thursday after testimony from members of four families. The settlement becomes final after members of the other two families testify. The checks are to be paid by May 11.
A separate contractual agreement with the company, involving engine overhaul manuals, was more important to the families than receiving the money, attorney Gary C. Robb said.
"From the beginning our clients wanted to remedy the engine problem," Robb said. "They have succeeded."
Teledyne pledged to revise the manuals, but has denied any engine problems.
Robb, who represented the four families who testified Thursday, said the March 21, 1998, crash happened because badly designed oil transfer tubes failed and starved the engine of oil.
Robert W. Cotter, attorney for the company, said the oil tubes did not cause engine failures and he admitted no liability.
The plane took off from Independence Memorial Airport. Robb said that when the pilot first radioed in that he heard engine noise, he called off the sky diving effort and started to land.
By the time the engine burst into flames it was too low for anyone to jump, Robb said. The plane, which dropped from 5,200 feet to the ground in about four minutes, was trailing white and black smoke when it crashed.
Three of the victims died of smoke inhalation, indicating that the plane was on fire before it crashed.
Robb said his review of company records found 14 other cases of engine failure caused by similar oil tube problems. The company made engines with the faulty tubes from 1945 to 1995, but the records go back to the mid-1980s. The engines went into small planes made by many different companies, Robb said.
"Who knows how many other engine failures and deaths resulted because of this," Robb said after the hearing.
Although not part of the legal settlement, the four families received letters from Cotter Thursday in which the company pledged to change its printed and Web site overhaul manuals to tell mechanics and owners to inspect the oil transfer tubes.
Cotter would not comment on the letters.
Robb said the pledge was part of a legally binding contract. Members of the four families said they never would have agreed to the settlement without the letters.
"Our whole mission on this was to keep people safe," said Judi Rudder, of Oskaloosa, Kan., the widow of skydiver Marion Rudder. "We knew together we could make a bigger difference, and we wanted to be fair."
Brad Buckley of Independence, the son of sky diver Kenney Buckley, said he did not want others to lose loved ones.
Other members of the Greater Kansas City Skydiving Club who died were Eric Rueff, John Schuman and Julie Douglass. The pilot, David Snyder, also died in the crash.
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