Schofield families sue over
fatal Afghan crash

The families of three Schofield Barracks soldiers killed in a 2004 plane crash in Afghanistan have filed a wrongful-death suit in Florida against the private military contractor that owned the craft and supplied its pilots.

"This crash was totally preventable," said attorney Bob Spohrer, of Jacksonville, Fla., who is representing the families.

Lt. Col. Michael McMahon, 41, formerly of West Hartford, Conn.; Chief Warrant Officer Travis W. Grogan, 31, of Moore, Okla.; and Spc. Harley D. Miller, 21, of Spokane, Wash., were killed Nov. 27 when the CASA 212 aircraft they were in crashed in Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains.

They were all assigned to the 25th Infantry Division.

Three civilian crew members, including the plane's two pilots -- Capt. Noel English and First Officer Loren Hammer -- also died in the crash. The plane was operated, and the civilians employed, by North Carolina-based Blackwater Aviation.

In their suit, the families allege that Presidential Airways Inc., a subsidiary of Blackwater that operates out of Melbourne, Fla., entrusted its aircraft to an inexperienced flight crew that failed to establish a flight plan route.

Also, the suit says the crew was not properly supervised "to create a safe and specific route of flight" and was not adequately briefed prior to the mission.

The suit was filed Friday in Florida's 18th Judicial Circuit Court. A call to a Blackwater spokesman's cell phone was not returned yesterday.

Blackwater Aviation has been awarded millions of dollars in Department of Defense contracts to shuttle soldiers between sites in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is one of the largest such military contractors of its kind.

According to the suit, the aircraft's crew had never flown the route from Afghanistan's Bagram Airfield to Farah, close to the country's western border with Iran, before the doomed flight. The craft took off about 7:08 a.m. and was last detected about nine miles from Bagram, in a location known as the Bamian Valley. The plane slammed into a mountainside at about 14,650 feet.

"And because they didn't file a flight plan, nobody knew where the plane was," said Doug Perkins, a spokesman for the families. "It was just very sloppy piloting."