McNair Family Suing Maker of Shuttle Rocket

The family of Challenger astronaut Ronald E. McNair will file suit against the maker of the solid rocket boosters blamed for the explosion that killed its seven crew members, an attorney said Friday.

Ronald D. Krist said that he will file the suit next week in U.S. District Court in Houston, contending that Morton Thiokol Inc. “is probably the sole culprit” in the space shuttle accident, and that he will request unspecified damages.

McNair, 35, was killed in the Jan. 28 accident. The suit will be the first filed against Morton Thiokol, although the family of Challenger pilot Michael J. Smith has filed a claim against the government.

The Houston Chronicle quoted McNair’s widow, Cheryl, as saying she felt compelled to file the suit.

Unwilling ‘to Do Nothing’

“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 told the newspaper.

Krist said the family decided to file the suit after months of fruitless negotiation with Morton Thiokol. “Our only recourse is to seek relief in the courts,” he said.

Thomas Russell, a Morton Thiokol vice president at the company’s corporate headquarters in Chicago, said there would be no comment until the company has seen the lawsuit petition.

When asked if the company expected lawsuits in the wake of the disaster, Russell said: “It doesn’t surprise me. It’s been a terrible tragedy.”

The plaintiffs in the suit will be Cheryl McNair, her two children and the parents of the dead astronaut.

Loss of Income

Krist said that his filing will not make a specific damage request but that the family seeks compensation for the loss of McNair’s income.

Krist said the family will ask also for compensation for mental anguish, loss of companionship, loss to the two children of a father and for the pain and suffering McNair endured before his death.