Jail for US sellers of fatal chopper parts

1.30 pm

A father and son have been imprisoned for more than a year in Los Angeles for their part in a bogus helicopter parts scam that killed two New Zealanders.

Deer hunters Chris Midgley and Ross McMurtrie, both 27, died in October 1995 when their Robinson R22 plunged onto State Highway 35 and was ripped apart by fire and exploding ammunition.

Frank Curtis Cherry jnr, 57, and his son Frank Curtis Cherry III, 33, pleaded guilty last October in the District Court in Los Angeles to making false statements about a Robinson R22 helicopter and other parts.

Cherry jnr was today sentenced to 18 months in prison. He faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and fines of up to $1.25 million.

His son was sentenced to 14 months in prison. The maximum for his crimes was five years' prison and fines of up to $618,000.

The two men who died had bought the helicopter two weeks earlier from local pilot James Edward Gedson, 53.

The helicopter was one of two Gedson bought from the Cherrys.

At their family-run spare parts firm in Torrance, California, the Cherrys had refurbished both with parts they said were newer than that they actually were.

In court last October, Assistant Attorney Alejandro Mayorkas said the Cherrys claimed the blade had flown for only 621 hours when it had actually done 1999 - just one hour short of the maximum allowed.

Mr Mayorkas said the main blade and a bogus tail rotor were fitted to an R22 sent to New Zealand. The men also fitted a bogus tail rotor to another Robinson - the one that crashed - and made it look real by sticking genuine caps on the ends of the blades.

New Zealand scientists found that glue on the rotor came unstuck, causing the chopper to crash.

Gedson, who maintains his innocence, spent two years in Auckland's Mt Eden Prison after being convicted of manslaughter in 1997.

He was found guilty of importing counterfeit tail rotor blades fitted to the helicopter and allowing it to be flown.

The Cherry case became a New Zealand milestone in February this year when the Americans sent a virtual travelling roadshow of attorneys, FBI agents and investigators to Tauranga.

They were armed with video and tape-decks to record statements from witnesses.

Staff at the Ministry of Justice and Department for Courts said the visit was extremely unusual.

Gedson's manslaughter conviction was the first in the world for fitting bogus parts to an aircraft, and the number of international witnesses at his trial - 17 - was also thought to be a New Zealand record.