Former Robins Air Force Base engineer facing charges for obstructing investigation into 2017 plane crash where 16 died
Former Robins Air Force Base engineer facing charges for obstructing investigation into 2017 plane crash where 16 died
15 Marines and one Navy Corpsman died during the crash.
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. — A former Warner Robins engineer was arrested and charged with making false statements and obstructing justice during a federal criminal investigation into a 2017 military plane crash where 16 service members died.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Northern District of Mississippi, in June 2017 a United States Marine Corps KC-130 transport aircraft known as “Yanky 72” crashed near Itta Bena, Mississippi.
15 Marines and one Navy Corpsman died during the crash.
On Tuesday, 67-year-old James Fisher was arrested on an indictment from a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Mississippi.
The indictment says, Fisher, former Lead Propulsion Engineer at Warner Robins Logistics Center, “engaged in a pattern of conduct intended to avoid scrutiny for his past engineering decisions related to why the crash may have occurred.”
The specific allegations from the indictment say Fisher “knowingly concealed key engineering documents from criminal investigators and made materially false statements to criminal investigators about his past engineering decisions.”
He is charged with two false statements and two obstruction of justice charges. If convicted, Fisher faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge would determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Previous reporting says the plane was flying at 20,000 feet when, without warning, a blade on the left inboard propeller flew off and sliced through the fuselage — a 130-pound object traveling at almost the speed of sound. The collision caused so much structural stress that the right inboard propeller came off and spun into the fuselage. The cockpit was severed from the plane and plummeted to Earth, followed moments later by the fuselage.
The doomed aircraft belonged to an air wing commanded by Brig. Gen. Bradley James. He said the crew had no control over the plane.
“I think it was such a violent action they were knocked unconscious almost immediately,” James said.
The wreckage was strewn across five miles of Mississippi soybean fields. The investigation found tiny pits of corrosion which, over time, had become a crack that caused the first blade to fail.
“We tracked this back when it went through rework around 2011 and it was not detected,” James said.
In 2011, the propellor had undergone a scheduled overhaul at Robins Air Force Base.
A commander at the time said issues with the plane should have been caught.
“The procedures that were in place in 2011, those procedures if properly done should have detected that corrosion in 2011,” Brig. Gen. John Kubinec said. “The corrosion should have been detected. Why it wasn’t, we don’t know.”
U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner of the Northern District of Mississippi; and Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), and Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) made the announcement.
AFOSI, DCIS, and NCIS are investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Leary and Philip Levy are prosecuting the case.