Local News in Brief : Countywide : Copter Pilot’s Widow Sues Over 1987 Death

The last fatal CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crash, which occurred a year ago today, was due to design defects, not pilot error, a lawsuit alleged.

The litigation was filed in Orange County Superior Court by Deborah Brandenburg of Irvine, widow of Maj. David J. Brandenburg, the pilot.

The Jan. 8, 1987, crash of the controversial Marine copter built by Sikorsky Aircraft Division of United Technologies took the lives of all five crew members.

In the lawsuit, Brandenburg claimed that defective design of auxiliary fuel tanks and the flight control system caused the crash.

A May report by the Navy’s judge advocate general concluded that pilot error caused the tragedy. The copter hit the ground at a 45-degree angle at 60 knots on the Salton Sea Test Range in the Imperial Valley.

In all, 20 Marines have died in Super Stallion crashes since l981.

Kevin Calcagnie, Brandenburg’s attorney, said the copter should have been designed so that crew members could have survived the crash. The five Marines burned to death, and Calcagnie said the design of the fuel tanks was “a solid defect.”