No trial date in $60M suit against helicopter owner

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By Kaitlin Mayhew -- kmayhew@nvdaily.com

Eight months after the parents of two men who died in an aircraft crash in December 2010 filed suit against the pilot and owner of the AirCare 5 medical helicopter that their plane collided a trial date has not been set.

Flight instructor Jason Allen Long, 32, and student pilot Jacob Houston Kiser, 19, were both killed after their craft collided with the helicopter.

Court documents in the $60 million suit state that on the afternoon of Dec. 31, 2010, Long and Kiser were attempting to land at Shenandoah Regional Airport in Weyers Cave after their flight in a Cessna model 1724 fixed-wing aircraft.

They were just about to land when they were forced to perform a "go-around" maneuver, or delay their approach because there was another aircraft on the runway.

As they were performing this maneuver and awaiting the opportunity to land, the medical helicopter approached the airport making a left turn.

Court documents assert that this maneuver was against both the local airport safety procedures and the Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

The helicopter overtook and descended on top of the Cessna while airborne.

According to court documents, it collided with plane, severing one of the wings and breaching the cockpit, leaving Long and Kiser "hopelessly trapped in a critically damaged aircraft that was not capable of flight."

The Cessna plummeted more than 500 feet. Long and Kiser died at the scene.

The civil suit, first filed in June 2011 in Augusta County, claims three counts of negligence by the pilot of the helicopter, Paul Wayne Weve, of Harrisonburg, and PHI Air Medical Inc., a Louisiana-based medical transportation company.

The suit outlines that many similar incidents have occurred as a result of lack of discipline in operations, piloting and maintenance at PHI that should have been avoided.

Court documents also cite that Weve had a "blight" on his FAA record that should have
made him incapable of being hired to pilot such an aircraft.

The National Transportation Safety Board is still in the process of completing an investigation of who was at fault in the collision. It said at the time of the crash that the process could take up to a year.

More than a year later, a public affairs officer for NTSP said the incident is still considered an ongoing investigation, although it may be close to completion.

He said no date has been set, but he "suspects it should be soon."