There's a location where water drips on aileron control cables causing them to rust and eventually fail. He said this had been the cause of 14 fatal crashes prior to his. He showed me x-ray pictures of all the metal in his legs. Unbelievable. He spent 4 months in the hospital and it took him years before he could walk again (which he was initially told he'd never do again).
Sounds fishy
I asked that. He didn't know. He got out of flying after the accident. He spoke of suing and being frustrated by the General Aviation Revitalization Act. He made a reference about having standing as the first person to survive such an accident. I didn't follow up as it seems the family/estate can just as easily sue.
Sure does.
The plane was built in 1969. If the tie rod on your 1969 mustang broke and put you into a guard rail, are you going to sue Ford?
No, but my life insurance carrier sure would.
From the Materials report in the docket of the subject accident: "The cable segments had separated in two locations, mid‐length through the wires and at an attaching clasp. The fracture surfaces were examined using a 5x to 50x stereo‐zoom microscope. The features on all of the fracture surfaces were consistent with overstress." [emphasis added] They attributed the overstress to crash dynamics, not something that happened in flight.