Maritime Accident News

Helicopter Crash Prompts Lawsuit

A mother is suing two companies for her son’s death in an oil platform transport crash.

Gayle Spikes’ son, James Cody Smalts, 23, of Conroe, was killed with four other men on December 11, 2008 when the Bell 206 air taxi helicopter they were traveling in crashed in the Gulf of Mexico south of Sabine Pass.

Spikes filed the lawsuit against Rotorcraft Leasing Co., LLC and Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. in February in Jefferson County.  Her lawsuit claims that the two companies were negligent, which led to the death of her son.

According to the lawsuit, when Smalts’ body was located, he had already been in the water for approximately 4 ½ hours and died from asphyxia due to drowning and complications from hypothermia.

The evening prior to the fatal helicopter crash, there had been snowfall in Southeast Texas, which is unusual.  The helicopter had been parked outside, uncovered during an ice and snowstorm.  According to the lawsuit, it was covered with ice and snow before it took off from Sabine Pass towards an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rotorcraft is being accused of negligence in the maintenance and operation of the helicopter, while Bell Helicopter is being accused of negligence by designing the helicopter to be “susceptible to engine failure caused by ingestion of snow and ice.”

“If Rotorcraft had followed their own position reporting and overdue aircraft procedures, the deceased (Smalts) would have been timely rescued," the lawsuit states.

Smalts’ mother is pursuing compensation to cover expenses relating to the funeral and burial, as well as damages for the mental anguish and conscious pain and suffering her son experienced while waiting to be rescued.

The pilot of the helicopter had filed a flight plan with the company’s communication center at 7:25 AM.  The company reported the helicopter missing to the U.S. Coast Guard at 9:47 AM.

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