BY EARNEST WINSTON and ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON -- Comair still has 34 Embraer Brasilia 120 aircraft in its fleet, despite filing a lawsuit this week against the manufacturer alleging defects in the airplane that crashed last year.
An airline official said Thursday that the Jan. 9, 1997, accident will not result in the grounding of its other Brasilias.
"Absolutely, we will be flying them," spokeswoman Meghan Glynn said about the EMB-120 planes.
The airline is targeting in the suit only the plane that crashed, and does not think the other EMB-120 planes are faulty, Ms. Glynn said.
The suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Covington.
The airplane that crashed had a history of propeller and de-icing equipment problems, and had been pulled out of service 22 times since October 1992 for repairs, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
In the suit, Comair said the manufacturer failed to disclose information about the aircraft's vulnerability in icy conditions. While there was ice on the EMB-120 plane's wings when it crashed, the cause of the crash has yet to be determined.
Court records do not list an attorney or company officials for the Brazil-based company so their response was not known.
Twenty-nine people were killed in the Jan. 9 crash in Michigan, aboard Comair Flight 3272, which departed from Cincinnati.
Within a few years, Comair plans to stop using the Brasilias. The company is moving to an all-jet fleet, a plan that was in place before the crash.
"Going to an all-jet fleet is economics," Ms. Glynn said. There are 20 more seats on a jet, and jets can travel farther and faster. In the 11-page suit, Comair Inc. and Comair Holdings Inc. alleges that Embraer Aircraft Corporation and Empresa Brasileria De Aeronautica S.A., were aware of "the defects and unreasonably dangerous characteristics" of the plane that crashed.
The plane went down in Raisinville Township, about 45 miles southwest of Detroit, after departing from the Cincinnati - Northern Kentucky International Airport.
"Should have known'
In the suit, Comair said: "In light of the information they knew or should have known about the flight characteristics of the EMB-120 aircraft in icy conditions, Embraer and EAC negligently misrepresented the airworthiness of the aircraft in numerous instances, including but not limited to, their failure to disclose that the aircraft was subject to performance degradation in icy conditions."
Families of the victims have filed suit against Comair and the manufacturers. The cases have not gone to trial.
Ms. Glynn said she could not comment further on specifics of Comair's lawsuit because it is a legal matter.
