“It seems to me that the AF would have something resembling “sovereign immunity” in cases like this.”
She is suing the makers. But before the NTSB is done with this a lot of fingers will be pointing at someone. According to the article, due to what is said to be a lack of parts, the seat hadn’t been service in years. And the installation is not available in the article to mention who put it together before it was delivered. It could have come with the parts to be installed when it made it to the AF.
Thankfully these seats are not used very often so it would be possible that the seat would never be called upon before the aircraft was retired. And God knows how many Falcons will have to be grounded for inspection, determination of having the same situation, and if found, where else they will have to look in the aircraft for other possible problems all over the world.
My problems are after the fact. There is mention of faulty workmanship, counterfeit chips, lack of servicing, a possible outdated system as it could have been upgraded already, and a lack of follow up that should have been accomplished to find these problems at all levels.
I have no idea what the crew chief or mechanics on the aircraft had to gain by pencil whipping as the chips that were counterfeit won’t exactly fit a Studebaker. And I don’t see the advantage of the new crew coming in when the old ones went pcs as this could have changed crews a number of times with deployments, sorties, and separations. We aren’t seeing something and by the way everyone is clamming up, they may all have been aware of it. It may be interesting.
wy69
Generally speaking, the service member can’t sue the government, but the family members can.