Knight v. Avco Corp.

1

JOANNA ELENA KNIGHT, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Charles Junior Knight, III, Deceased, and ALLISON MICHELE GRAY CLARKE, Individually and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Matthew Clarke, Deceased, Plaintiffs, v. AVCO CORPORATION, Defendant.

No. 4:21-CV-00702

United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania

August 9, 2024

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Matthew W. Brann Chief United States District Judge

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND^[1]

A. The Pilot and the Helicopter

Monumental Helicopters operated a helicopter flight tour, flight instruction, and rental company out of Fort Tipton Airport in Fort Meade, Maryland.^[2] Among Monumental’s fleet was a Guimbal Calibri G2 helicopter registered with the Federal Aviation Administration as N572MD (the “Helicopter”).^[3] The Helicopter was powered by a Lycoming O-360-J2A engine, produced by Defendant Avco Corporation’s Lycoming Engines division.^[4] Monumental used the Helicopter, which was restricted to Visual Flight Rules (“VFR”) flights, to provide flight training to student pilots.^[5]

Among those students was Charles Junior Knight II, who began flight training with Monumental in May 2017.^[6] Knight’s pilot training encompassed the pilot certification requirements set forth in 14 C.F.R. Part 61, including visual flight weather planning requirements, flight requirements for lawfully operating under VFR; pre-flight procedures for determining the airworthiness of the helicopter; legally permissible altitudes for flight operations in different classes of airspace; and procedures for responding to an engine power loss, including auto rotations.^[7] It also included instruction that helicopter operation below 500 feet above ground level was permitted if it did not pose a hazard to persons or property on the surface and the minimum visibility requirements for VFR in Class G airspace were met: ½ mile visibility and clear of clouds.^[8] Knight was instructed and required by FAA regulations to ensure that the weather conditions in which he operated the Helicopter met the limitations for VFR.^[9] In April 2018, Knight received his pilot’s license, which restricted him to VFR operations only.^[10] Knight continued to rent the Helicopter after receiving his license and, in March 2019, Knight made a $50,000 investment in Monumental which permitted him greater access to the Helicopter.^[11] He was given access to the key box and the ability to reserve and fly the Helicopter with notice to Monumental.^[12]

B. May 4, 2019 Flight and Crash

In late April 2019, Knight reserved the Helicopter for May 4, 2019 using Monumental’s Google-calendar reservation system.^[13] Knight invited a friend, Matthew Clarke, to join him on the flight.^[14] The flight coincided with the opening of rockfish season in the Chesapeake Bay.^[15] Clarke’s brother and brother-in-law, Tim Clarke and Ben Meredith, planned to go fishing in an area of the Bay south of Kent Island, Maryland, where Knight and Clarke hoped to fly and take aerial photographs of Tim and Ben in their respective fishing boats.^[16]

Knight and Clarke took off from Tipton Airport at approximately 11:30 a.m.^[17]From approximately 12:00 p.m. to 12:11 p.m. the Helicopter’s flight path, speed, and altitude were recorded by radar.^[18] During this period, the Helicopter circled over Kent Island and portions of the Chesapeake Bay at an altitude of 250 feet or below.^[19]Clarke exchanged several text messages with his brother-in-law in an effort to find where Ben and Tim were fishing.^[20] The last text message, sent at 12:08 p.m. from Clarke to Ben, asked if the pair could see the Helicopter and stated “We are hitting the wall that we can’t fly through.”^[21]

A few minutes later, at 12:11 p.m., the last valid data point recorded for the Helicopter showed it flying due west at a speed of 79 knots (approximately 91 mph) and at an altitude of 175 feet above the water.^[22] Shortly thereafter the Helicopter crashed into the water and sank upon impact.^[23] Ryan Culberson, an eyewitness who witnessed the crash from a fishing boat described seeing the Helicopter “beg[i]n to lose altitude from where it was, and then within a few seconds, it plummeted at that point down to the-towards the bay, nose-diving, and then I do recall that it did kind of rotate in the process, but then after that, it hit the bay and a splash of water.”^[24]Culberson and another eyewitness, Curtis Hoover, drove their boats to the impact location to attempt to provide aid to the Helicopter’s occupants; however, when they arrived, aside from some debris, there was no sign of the Helicopter or its occupants.^[25] Knight’s and Clarke’s bodies were recovered by divers later in the day and the Helicopter remained submerged for two days until it was removed from the water on May 6, 2019.^[26]

C. Cause of the Crash^[27]

1. Plaintiffs’ Theory

The O-360-J2A engine which powered the Helicopter is a direct drive, four-cylinder, horizontally opposed, four-stroke, pushrod internal combustion engine.^[28] The engine has two valves per cylinder, an intake valve and an exhaust valve.^[29] Within each cylinder is a piston that is attached to a crankshaft via a connecting rod.^[30] In a four-stroke engine, each piston completes four “strokes” within the cylinder to convert chemical energy to mechanical energy: (1) the intake stroke; (2) the compression stroke; (3) the power stroke; and (4) the exhaust stroke.^[31]During the intake stroke, the intake valve opens, the exhaust valve is closed, and the piston moves away from the cylinder head, drawing an air-fuel mixture into the cylinder.^[32] The intake valve closes, the exhaust valve remains closed, and the piston then moves toward the cylinder head, compressing-hence “compression stroke”- the air-fuel mixture within the cylinder.^[33] As the piston approaches “top-dead-center,” two spark plugs ignite the compressed air-fuel mixture, transforming chemical energy to mechanical energy; the explosion drives the piston away from the cylinder head, which rotates the crankshaft, which in turn powers-hence “power stroke”-the propeller.^[34] The exhaust valve then opens, beginning the exhaust stroke, and the piston moves towards the cylinder head, pushing the exhaust gases out through the exhaust valve.^[35]

In a pushrod engine, the valves are opened when a lobed camshaft, geared to the crankshaft, causes a pushrod to articulate a rocker arm which, in turn, pushes the valve into the cylinder to its open position.^[36] The rocker arm does not contact the valve directly.^[37] Instead, it contacts a “rotator cap” that is affixed at the end of the valve stem.^[38] When the camshaft rotates to its relaxed position, a valve spring forces the valve closed against the valve seat inside the cylinder head.^[39] Within the cylinder head, the valve moves within a valve guide.^[40] The interface between the valve stem and the valve guide is lubricated with engine oil.^[41]Excessively high temperatures in the exhaust valve guide can cause “coking,” or burnt oil accumulating along the valve-to-guide interface.^[42] The accumulation of burnt oil inhibits the movement of the valve within the guide, causing it to stick.^[43]

Plaintiffs claim that the Helicopter “experienced a catastrophic engine malfunction caused by the sticking of the number one cylinder valve.”^[44] The resistance created by the coking exceeded the force of the valve spring, preventing the exhaust valve from closing.^[45] This resulted in a loss of compression, which resulted in a loss of engine power.^[46] Reacting to the power loss, Knight increased collective-increased the rotor blade pitch to initiate a climb-which significantly increased the resistance against the oncoming air.^[47] The engine was unable to produce power sufficient to overcome the increase in resistance, causing rotor droop-a decrease in the inertia of the main rotor blades-and the Helicopter could not remain in flight.^[48] The coking on the valve stem was the result of a design defect. To prevent coking, the engine must be designed to provide for adequate heat dissipation away from the valve-to-guide interface so that temperatures do not reach the coking threshold.^[49] The O-360-J2A engine dissipates heat by drawing it from the exhaust valve face, through the stem which is filled with sodium, and expelling it through the valve-to-guide interface into the valve guide boss.^[50] To prevent the temperatures from reaching the coking threshold, the valve must rotate within the guide to ensure heat is distributed evenly around the circumference and along the length of the valve stem and guide so as to avoid “hot spots.”^[51] The design of the engine does not include an affirmative mechanical means to cause the exhaust valve to rotate.^[52] Instead, the rocker arm is designed to contact the outer surface of the rotator cap, causing it to turn at small indices each time it is struck, and valve rotation is facilitated by engine vibration when the valve is open.^[53]

2. Avco’s Theory

When Plaintiffs arrived at the hangar on May 4, 2019, they did not encounter any Monumental employees as Monumental had cancelled its scheduled sightseeing flights due to the weather conditions.^[54] While at the hangar, Clarke exchanged text messages with Ben and Tim, first telling them, at 8:29 a.m., that it “[l]ooks like we’re going to be flying,” then, at 9:22 a.m., that he was “[h]oping this fog burns off so we can make it happen,” and finally, at 10:36 a.m., “The closer you stayed at Poplar Island the better chance we might have a finding you with this low ceiling there’s flight restrictions [sic].”^[55] At 10:45 a.m., the National Weather Service issued a weather update for the area surrounding Kent Island and Poplar Island that advised of cloud...