Medford, Ore-.– Steven Metheny, the former Vice President of Carson Helicopters pleaded guilty to two charges Monday. Filing false information and conspiracy to defraud the United States Forest Service.
Though that means they don’t have to sit through trial,the family members of fallen firefighter, Scott Charlson said someone should be taking responsibility for the deadly disaster.
Charlson isone of nine peopleincluding seven Southern Oregon firefighters who died in 2008. In what’s considered one of the deadliest aviation disasters in U.S. fire fighting history.
The Sikorski helicopter he was riding in took a nose dive on take-off crashing into a tree in a Northern California forest.
According to court documents Metheny lied about how much weight the helicopter could hold. When it crashed it was carrying 14 hundred pounds more than it should.
The documents also said he falsified key performance charts all to get a $20,000,000 contract from the U.S. Forest Service.
Jake Charlson lost his brother Scott in the crashand said in an email to NBC5 news,he came to court Monday hoping Metheny would have taken more responsibility.
“We have a difficult time understanding how a person falsifying aircraft weights to gain a contractcan not be culpable to some degree in the crash of that helicopter,” said Charlson.
Prosecutors said Metheney’s actions endangered the safety of the helicopter, but did not say thefalsifieddocuments were the cause of thecrash.
Charlson said no matter what, nothing will bring back his brother. He saidhe wakes up every day wishing he could see Scott one more time.
Former Carson Maintenance Operator, Levi Phillips pleaded guilty to fraud back in September 2013.
Metheny will be sentenced in March 2015 and could face 25 years in prison.
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