North Carolina judge orders $50M payment for helicopter crash death

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina judge has ordered $50 million be paid to the family of a Charlotte TV station meteorologist who was killed in a helicopter crash three years ago after finding the companies that owned and operated the aircraft liable in his widow’s wrongful death lawsuit.

Following an evidentiary hearing earlier in the week, state Superior Court Judge Forrest Bridges issued a judgment order Thursday directing insurers for the Total Traffic & Weather Network, iHeartCommunications, and iHeartMedia to make the payment within the next two months.

WBTV meteorologist Jason Myers and pilot Chip Tayag died in November 2022 after the Robinson R44 helicopter crashed along a Charlotte-area interstate. The flight’s purpose was to provide Myers video training over a simulated news scene, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Jillian Myers initially sued the companies and a maintenance facility in March 2023 for the death of her 41-year-old husband, with whom they had four children. The maintenance facility was later removed as a defendant.

A National Transportation Safety Board report last year determined the probable cause of the crash was inadequate inspections, resulting in an eventual loosening of hardware and subsequent loss of helicopter control. A post-crash examination of the flight controls showed hardware that should have been connected to a part on the main rotor was disconnected and the connecting hardware was missing, the final NTSB report says.

Thursday’s order from Bridges said the plaintiffs’ experts confirmed and expanded upon the NTSB finding that the crash was “was due to operational and maintenance errors committed by” the remaining defendants.

The judgment entered for Jillian Myers was actually $126.3 million against the defendants — a $105 million total agreed upon by attorneys on both sides of the case and that Bridges found was a fair and reasonable settlement valuation — along with accrued interest.

But by agreement the defendants’ primary insurers will pay $50 million. Jillian Myers now will be able to seek the rest of the amount against the companies’ excess or umbrella insurance carriers, her attorney Gary C. Robb said on Friday. Those carriers recently told the defendants they were declining their additional layers of coverage for the wrongful death claims, Thursday order says.

Total Traffic & Weather Network and iHeartCommunications are subsidiaries of iHeartMedia. Wendy Goldberg, an iHeartMedia spokesperson, declined to comment on Friday.

Myers was raised in North Carolina and worked in the city of Raleigh, and in Texas and Virginia before returning to the Charlotte area where he grew up, WBTV said at the time of his death.

“This settlement does not bring back the man we lost, but it does represent a formal acknowledgment of the profound impact his death has had on our family,” Jillian Myers said in a news release.

Tayag, a pilot for more than 20 years, worked for the Total Traffic & Weather Network. Police praised him for avoiding a crash on Interstate 77, thus saving the lives of drivers.

Robb said Friday that Myers’ family had hoped the lawsuit would prompt improved operations and maintenance of helicopters used by television and weather operations, and ultimately save lives. That is already happening, he said.

“We believe the industry got the message,” he said in an interview.