Result: Settlement, amount confidential
Wrongful death / helicopter crash
San Francisco County Superior Court
February 17, 1993
Gregory Cook and Sonia Hamilton were employees of the State of California's Department of Fish & Game. They were seated in the rear of a Bell 206B Jet Ranger Helicopter, surveying an oil slick on the Sacramento River. The helicopter worked the area of the Carquinez Straits for about 15 minutes when, flying at about 25 knots and 200 feet, it collided with power lines strung across the water. The helicopter hung on the wires for a number of minutes before dropping into the river below, resurfacing once and then disappearing completely. There were no survivors.
O'Reilly & Danko's investigation revealed that PG&E had abandoned the wires some years earlier. The wires thus no longer carried electrical current. Public Utilities Commission regulations require that electric companies dismantle their lines promptly after abandoning them. Had PG&E done so in this case, the accident would never have occurred.
PG&E defended on the grounds that, regulations aside, the pilot should have seen and avoided the wires. According to PG&E, the tower from which the wires were hung was so massive that the pilot could not have missed it had he been paying attention. By commissioning a series of aerial photographs, O'Reilly & Danko showed that, from the pilot's angle, the tower disappeared into the superstructure of a nearby bridge. Without the tower to serve as a warning, the unmarked wires were virtually invisible.
Confronted with the evidence O'Reilly & Danko developed, PG&E settled the plaintiffs' claim shortly before trial for a confidential amount.
