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The widow of a U.S. Army aviator who died when his AH-64 Apache attack helicopter crashed on a training mission claims her husband would still be alive if Boeing had simply been honest about the chopper’s purported “‘enhanced’ and ‘unmatched’ survivability features.”
In a gut-wrenching product liability lawsuit obtained by The Independent, Kiara Sotelo Wayment accuses Boeing of overselling the Apache to the military as perfectly safe, when in fact it “lack[s] adequate crashworthiness.”
Specifically, Sotelo Wayment’s complaint says whoever is in the forward gunner’s position — where 32-year-old Warrant Officer 1 Stewart Duane Wayment was seated during the fateful 2023 exercise — becomes especially vulnerable in an accident.
In the Apache, which is operated by a two-person crew, the pilot sits behind the gunner.
“[T]he crash at issue was survivable, and the pilot in the back in fact survived,” the complaint continues. “[Wayment] perished because the Helicopter at issue and its components were defective and dangerous.”
Among other things, the layout of the front cockpit is particularly dangerous in a frontal impact crash, according to Sotelo Wayment’s complaint, which also places a portion of the blame for her husband’s death on the Apache’s seat belts and the flight helmet he was wearing.
Attorney Joshua Haffner, who is representing Sotelo Wayment, said the front-seat issue came to light after a “very elaborate process with the military to get access to the helicopter” in which Wayment went down.
“I don’t think these guys know how much more dangerous it is up there for them,” Haffner told The Independent.
Two years later, Wayment’s family remains “devastated,” according to Haffner.
“It changed their life completely,” Haffner said. “Stewart was a great guy.”
Boeing said on Wednesday that the company “does not comment on pending litigation.”
In an email to The Independent, a spokesperson for co-defendant BAE Systems, which supplies the Apache’s seating and safety harnesses, said “we offer our deepest sympathies to the families impacted by this tragedy” but declined to comment further, citing ongoing litigation.
A spokeswoman for helmet maker Elbit Systems, which is also named as a defendant in the suit, cited a “standing policy where we don’t comment on pending litigation.”
The Army, which is not named as a defendant in the suit, also declined to comment to The Independent amid an active court case.
On April 27, 2023, Wayment’s Apache was among a group of 14 aircraft from the 1st Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment flying back to Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska after a two-week exercise at the Donnelly Training Area, about 80 miles away. Weather conditions that day were good and visibility was clear, the Army said.
Roughly 48 minutes into the journey, near the town of Healy, Wayment’s chopper and a second Apache were heading through a mountain pass, some 250 feet above the ground, when the two lost sight of each other, according to a 385-page report later released by the Army Combat Readiness Center.
After one of the Apaches increased its airspeed, it hit the main rotor blades of the other, the report said. Both helicopters then slammed into the side of a mountain, killing Wayment, a father of three young boys, but not the pilot at the controls behind him.
The two members of the flight crew in the second Apache, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Christopher Robert Eramo and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kyle D. McKenna, also died in the collision.
Broadly speaking, the AH-64 Apache “is a dangerous and defective product with respect to the gunners seated in the front cockpit in a frontal impact crash,” states Sotelo Wayment’s complaint, which was filed initially in state court in Arizona, where Boeing builds the Apache, and removed to Arizona federal court on June 12.
For starters, the Apache’s forward cockpit contains an Electronic Display and Control system, or “TEDAC,” positioned directly in front of the gunner, according to the complaint. However, as the TEDAC lacks any sort of padding, it “poses a significant risk of death or injury from a frontal impact,” the complaint alleges.
It says the Apache’s seats and safety harnesses, from BAE Systems, do not “adequately restrain the head, causing neck and/or head injury on frontal impact.” Additionally, the lap belts pose an “unreasonable risk of coming into the stomach causing injury, a process known as submarining,” which can cause all manner of extremely grim outcomes.
Third, according to the complaint, the Elbit Systems helmet Wayment was wearing at the time was not designed to properly mitigate the effects of a crash.
In all, Boeing, BAE Systems, and Elbit were “negligent and provided a defective aircraft and components resulting in [Wayment’s] death,” the complaint argues.
Wayment, a Utah native, began his military career in the National Guard but later enlisted full-time in the Army, according to a fellow servicemember who knew him.
To Wayment, his family “was absolutely everything to him,” Samuel Malachowski told a local ABC affiliate shortly after the fatal incident.
“He looked forward to getting home to see them each day and being with them, spending time with them and making good memories,” Malachowski said. “That was everything he lived for.”
In 2024, the Army reported three Apache crashes over a span of just eight weeks. Earlier this month, a gunner assigned to the Army’s 101st Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Campbell, Kentucky was killed when the Apache he was co-piloting crashed during a routine training mission.
Sotelo Wayment is seeking compensatory, general, and special damages from Boeing, BAE Systems, and Elbit over her husband’s Apache crash, saying his death has deprived their family of his love, care, comfort, support, society, attention, services, consortium, companionship, assistance, protection, and affection, plus punitive damages, lawyers’ fees, and court costs.
A GoFundMe campaign launched by a friend of Wayment’s in the aftermath of his death raised a little over $42,000 of its $600,000 goal.
The military, in most instances, is immune from lawsuits, according to Haffner. But, he said, “when there is a dangerous product, there is an avenue for recovery.”
“We want our soldiers to be safe,” Haffner told The Independent. “That’s what this case is about.”
The three companies have until July 3 to file their responses to Sotelo Wayment’s complaint.
