LOS ANGELES (AP) — The family of a helicopter pilot who died when his helicopter crashed in 2020 while fighting a wildfire in Southern California reached a $15 million settlement with the company that maintained the aircraft, their attorneys said Friday.
Michael Fournier was making water drops on Aug. 19, 2020, over hilly, rugged terrain when his bright red Bell UH-1H copter suddenly plunged into a hillside as he was helping battle the Hills Fire burning 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the small Central Valley town of Coalinga.
WATCH: Former ABC 10News pilot remembers Fournier, who he described as "a good pilot," in this story from the day after the 2020 crash.
Fournier worked for a private Southern California company that contracts with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, and other agencies to provide firefighting aircraft and other services.
“The Fournier family’s lawsuit sought answers and accountability, and this result does just that,” said Andrew Robb, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit. Robb said the family would not be making any public comments.
An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board’s concluded that the helicopter crashed because of “a hydraulic system failure.”
Moments before the crash Fournier radioed to air traffic control that he was having trouble with the helicopter’s hydraulics, Robb said.
Fournier was working with Guardian Helicopters, which is based in Fillmore, California and at the time had a contract with Cal Fire to provide emergency services. The settlement was paid by Rotorcraft Support, Inc., the company that maintained the helicopter. A phone message left with the helicopter maintenance company was not immediately returned Friday.
Fournier’s copter went down in a remote, hilly, smoke-filled area that took a Fresno County Sheriff’s Department search and rescue team nearly four hours to reach.
Fourteen team members in five Jeeps traveled for miles through soft dirt under smoke-filled skies, finally abandoning the vehicles to walk the last several hundred yards to the crash site. There, they carefully wrapped the body in an American flag and carried it to one of the vehicles.
In Aug. 2020, ABC 10News covered the crash that killed Fournier. Our team of journalists learned that he had been a former 10News employee.
In the mid to late 1990s, Fournier was a contracted backup pilot for ABC 10News in San Diego for about two years, said Kyle Anastasio. He’s known Fournier for nearly 28 years. He says Fournier was trying to break into the flying industry when they met.
Anastasio was the primary Sky10 pilot and taught Fournier how to fly the news chopper.
“He was a good pilot,” Anastasio said. “That’s why it’s so devastating.”
Anastasio says Fournier went on to have a great career in flying.
