Man arrested on multiple charges in fatal 2017 Delta military plane crash

A former Warner Robbins employee has been arrested on charges of making false statements and obstruction of justice in the federal criminal investigation into a 2017 military plane crash that killed 16 soldiers.

On July 10, 2017, a United States Marine Corps KC-130 transport aircraft known as “Yanky 72” crashed near Itta Bena, Mississippi, killing fifteen Marines and a Navy medic.

Click here to view individual photos and service records of the men aboard Yanky 72.

On Tuesday morning, James Michael Fisher, a former resident of Warner Robins, Georgia, and current resident of Portugal, was arrested on an indictment by a grand jury in federal court in the Northern District of Mississippi charging him with obstruction of justice and making false statements during a criminal investigation into the cause of the car crash.

According to the indictment, Fisher, 67, a former senior propulsion engineer at the Warner Robins Logistics Center, engaged in a pattern of conduct designed to avoid scrutiny of his prior engineering decisions related to the probable cause of the crash. Specifically, the indictment alleges that Fisher knowingly concealed important engineering documents from detectives and made materially false statements to detectives about his prior engineering decisions.

Fisher is charged with two counts of perjury and two counts of obstruction of justice. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. A federal district judge would determine the sentence, taking into account U.S. sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner for the Northern District of Mississippi, as well as the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).

AFOSI, DCIS and NCIS are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Leary and Philip Levy are prosecuting the case.