Widows of photographer and pilot sue Airbus over fatal 6abc helicopter crash

The widows of a photographer and a pilot who died when a 6abc-operated helicopter crashed in 2023 have filed a lawsuit against Airbus, alleging a defect in the aircraft caused the fatal incident.

Rosalyn Collins, the widow of pilot Monroe Smith, and Elaine Dougherty, the widow of photographer Christopher Dougherty, filed the lawsuit in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia last week, just days before the two-year anniversary of the crash.

The TV station’s Chopper 6 crashed in December 2023 in Wharton State Forest in Burlington County on its way back to Northeast Philadelphia Airport.

The reason for the crash, the suit says, was a known defect in the design of the 2013 American Eurocopter AS-350A-STAR helicopter, which was manufactured by Airbus. The French aviation company has been warned for decades that the aircraft’s hydraulic system, which assists the pilot in controlling the helicopter’s rotor blades, was “defective and dangerous” and could leave pilots with few options, according to the complaint.

“If the system fails, the pilot must manually operate the helicopter and counteract enormously strong aerodynamic forces by brute strength,” the complaint says. “Manual control of the AS350B2, however, is exceedingly difficult, and often impossible.”

Chopper 6’s hydraulic system previously failed in 2019, and part of it was replaced by Sterling Helicopters, a Bucks County-based company that is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Sterling also inspected the hydraulic system in 2021, the suit said.

But the system failed again on the evening of the 2023 crash, which the suit says was “evidence” that the system’s parts were not designed to ”withstand such continuous use.”

Airbus declined to comment. Sterling did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit also names as defendants companies that produced parts of the helicopter’s hydraulic system.

A January 2024 National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report on the crash found “no anomalies of the engine” that “would have precluded normal operation.”

Smith, 67, from Glenside, and Dougherty, 45, from Oreland, worked for U.S. Helicopters, a North Carolina company that owned the aircraft 6abc was leasing.

The duo had been part of the Action News team for years, the station said following the crash.

“Two really genuine people who have your best interest at heart and you can feel it,” Nicholas Thomas, a former colleague, said of Smith and Dougherty after their deaths.

The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.