$10 Million Settlement for Family of Wildfire Pilot Killed by Substandard Rotor Pin

On June 28, 2021, Heath Coleman, a 49-year-old pilot employed by Yellowhead Helicopters, was flying a Bell 212 near Evansburg, Alberta, to support crews fighting a forest fire. As the aircraft approached a landing area to pick up firefighters, one of the main rotor blades abruptly separated from the rotor head assembly. The remaining blades and the entire main rotor head assembly followed within seconds. The helicopter fell to the ground and Coleman was killed.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada investigated the crash and traced the failure to a single strap retaining pin in the main rotor hub. That pin had been in service for only 20 hours before it sheared. Engineers determined that a pin made from the correct material would have withstood a shear force more than 300 percent greater than the force that destroyed the one installed on Coleman's aircraft.

The pin had been manufactured by Fore Aero, based in Haltom City, Texas. Attorneys at Slack Davis Sanger retained by Coleman's family, working alongside Canadian co-counsel Joe Fiorante of Camp, Fiorante, Matthews and Mogerman in Vancouver, argued that Fore Aero had substituted a weaker grade of steel and that its quality-control process failed to catch the nonconformance. The Federal Aviation Administration and Transport Canada responded to the findings by grounding approximately 400 Bell 212, 204B, and 205 helicopters worldwide until each aircraft's pins could be inspected and replaced.

Ladd Sanger of Slack Davis Sanger led the litigation on behalf of Coleman's family. In January 2023, Fore Aero agreed to settle the civil action for $10 million. Sanger described the outcome in coverage by Aviation Pros and AIN Online, stating that the defective pin and the absence of adequate quality control in the manufacturing process caused the death of a highly experienced pilot who should have come home from a routine mission.