Daily Journal, "Judge OKs $13 Million Settlement for Soldiers" [Helicopter Crashes from Faulty Manufacturing]

          In what plaintiffs' lawyers described as the largest settlement for military personnel injured during the Iraq war, a federal judge in Los Angeles Wednesday approved a $13.65 million settlement against Boeing and four other companies.
          The plaintiffs were injured in August 2003 when their helicopter's gearbox failed during a maintenance flight in Tikrit, causing the craft to crash from 800 feet. The soldiers suffered major spinal injuries as a result.
          Because the army is immune from liability, the men sued the manufacturers of the Apache Longbow helicopter's gearbox, which drives the tail rotor, and its accelerometer, which should have warned the pilots of the gearbox problem. Plaintiffs' attorneys argued the accelerometer, designed to detect vibration, was instead rendered inoperable by excessive vibration. "It was like a smoke alarm that failed when it sensed smoke," plaintiffs' attorney said.