ANNAPOLIS, Md. ― A new lawsuit says the federal government was negligent, and now it must pay.
The family of a paramedic who died in a 2008 Medevac helicopter crash in Maryland is suing the federal government for $15 million.
A Maryland family wants $15 million for the death of their son, husband and father. He was one of four people killed in the worst Medevac crash in state history.
The National Transportation Safety Board has already determined there were major mistakes that lead to the deadliest Medevac crash in the state which killed four people.
Now, the family of Trooper Mickey Lippy, who died onboard, is suing the federal government saying air traffic controllers were ill-equipped as the plane headed toward Andrews Air Force Base in bad weather. They say those workers couldn’t provide the pilot the assistance he desperately needed.
“At its core, obviously, it’s about a young mother and an infant who no longer have a husband and a father,” said Robert Schulte, lawyer for Lippy family.
The controllers who handled Trooper 2 that evening in 2008 made a number of critical mistakes. Among those mistakes, Schulte says air traffic control provided the pilot with old weather information as conditions were quickly deteriorating. He says if the pilot knew how bad the weather was, he may not have ever flown.
The suit also says the controller was not able to guide the pilot to a safe landing using radar. That was necessary because the pilot reported a navigational device on the chopper was not working.
“The whole point of this lawsuit is to hold those people accountable who didn’t protect the people who protect us,” said Schulte.
The suit also claims air traffic control made no attempt to locate the chopper, once it lost radar contact.
Lippy, a paramedic on the flight, has been honored as a hero who continually risked his life to save others.
Republished with permission of WJZ.com