A Texas jury has awarded $96 million in damages against Textron Lycoming in a lawsuit brought by the supplier of forgings for crankshafts involved in a series of in-flight engine failures that led to a costly recall in 2002-3.
Awarding Navosta, Texas-based Interstate Southwest $9.7 million in actual damages and $86.4 million in punitive damages, the jury concluded the crankshaft failures were not caused by overheating of the forgings, as alleged by Lycoming, but because the crankshaft design was inadequate for the high-power engines that failed.
Attorney Mark Rose, representing Interstate, says the verdict effectively precludes Lycoming from pursuing a $173 million indemnity claim against the company to recover the cost of the engine recall and settlement of lawsuits related to the crankshaft failures. Textron says it will pursue post-trial motions, possibly including appeals.
The jury also found that Lycoming's decision to add vanadium to harden the steel and reduce the number of machining operations further limited the amount of stress the crankshafts could withstand. "The jurors found the combination of poor design and vanadium pushed these crankshafts beyond their limits," says Hal Walker, attorney for Interstate.
Lycoming launched the recall programme in April 2002 after a series of crankshaft failures in TIO/LTIO-540 piston engines of more than 300hp (225kW). Crankshafts were replaced in 800 engines by April 2003.
Source: Flight International
