Challenger Astronaut’s Widow to Sue Maker of Rocket Booster
The widow of one of the seven crew members killed in the shuttle Challenger disaster Jan. 28 says she plans to sue the manufacturer of the solid rocket booster, which was blamed for the accident.
“To do nothing would be a tacit acquiescence or stamp of approval of the type of conduct that took my husband’s life and this I am unwilling to do and not required to do in America,” Cheryl McNair, 34, widow of Ronald McNair, said in a Houston Chronicle interview today.
She said her husband’s life was cut short “by the reckless carelessness of people he trusted.”
McNair’s attorney, Ronald D. Krist, said he could not negotiate a settlement “in the millions” with booster manufacturer Morton Thiokol and intends to file a suit in federal court within 10 days.
If the case is successful, a jury would decide the amount the widow might obtain, based on her husband’s projected earning power, the anguish caused by his death and other factors. McNair, 34 when he died, earned $54,000 a year.
Morton Thiokol was not available for comment.
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