Engineer ‘hidden documents’ about crash that killed 15 Marines

A former engineer at a U.S. military air logistics center has been charged with making false statements and obstructing justice during the investigation into a plane crash in Mississippi in 2017 that killed all 16 soldiers on board, federal prosecutors said.

James Michael Fisher, 67, was arrested Tuesday after a grand jury in a federal court in northern Mississippi indicted him.

The context

On July 10, 2017, a United States Marine Corps KC-130T transport aircraft crashed near Itta Bena, Mississippi, killing fifteen Marines and one Navy medic.

This crash was one of the deadliest in recent Marine Corps history.

The aircraft was stationed at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York, and was transporting Marine special operations forces from North Carolina to Arizona for training.

What we know

James Michael Fisher, formerly of Warner Robins in Georgia and currently based in Portugal, was arrested on an indictment by a grand jury in federal court in the Northern District of Mississippi. Fisher was a senior propulsion engineer at the Warner Robins Logistics Center.

According to a press release from the Unity State Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Mississippi, Fisher concealed technical details and lied to investigators about his previous decisions that may have been related to the crash.

The press release states: “FISHER knowingly withheld important technical documents from investigators and made factually false statements to detectives regarding his previous technical decisions.”

Fisher was arrested in Jacksonville, Florida. He is now charged with two counts of making a false statement and two counts of obstruction of justice. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi, Fisher’s actions were part of his attempt to avoid scrutiny of his engineering decisions.

A 2018 investigation found that the plane crash was caused by a deteriorating propeller blade that had corroded upon arrival at an Air Force maintenance depot in 2011. Workers there failed to repair the blade and returned it to the fleet unrepaired, according to Military Times, which reported on the investigation in 2018.

According to a report in Military Times, neglect of the rotor blades allowed a routine corrosion problem to develop, developing into a crack that went undetected for years until the KC-130T aircraft crashed.

The worn rotor blade failed and separated from the propeller, causing the crash. The rotor blade flew into the plane’s shield, triggering a disaster that killed everyone on board and caused the plane to break into three pieces, according to Military Times.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Leary and Philip Levy are prosecuting the case. The investigation is being conducted by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

What’s next

Fisher made his first court appearance in Jacksonville, Florida. The trial date has not yet been set. If convicted, the former engineer faces a 20-year prison sentence.

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