VICTIM'S FAMILY FILES SUIT

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The family of a Forsyth County man who perished in the December crash of an Airborne Express DC-8 is suing the airline for $20 million in federal court.

The lawsuit - filed by Lynn Scully, the wife of victim Brian Scully - claims that pilot error caused the crash and that the airline failed to train the pilots properly. The National Transportation Safety Board reached the same conclusions in a report issued Tuesday.Brian Scully, 36, of Walkertown was one of six people aboard the cargo plane when it slammed into a southwest Virginia mountainside Dec. 22.

There were no survivors.

Scully was a mechanic with Triad International Maintenance Co. in Greensboro. TIMCO was completing a five-month overhaul of the plane when it went down. It was common practice for a mechanic to be present for all post-operational flights, said Kevin Luibrand, an attorney for the Scully family.

Scully wasn't scheduled to be on that flight.

He volunteered for the test flight so that other mechanics, whose families lived further away, could go home for the Christmas holiday.

The plane ran into trouble about 30 minutes out of Greensboro. The pilots were testing the airplane's handling during a stall, according to the NTSB.

A stall occurs when a plane slows to a point where its wings lose enough lift to keep it airborne.

The NTSB concluded that Keith Leming, 37, who was behind the controls of the plane, failed to use proper procedures to recover from a stall.

The board also reported that Garth Avery, 48, who was the pilot-in-command and seated beside Leming, failed to recognize the trouble and intervene.

Lynn Scully filed the lawsuit June 23, several weeks before the NTSB's rulings were made public.

``We had our own analysis done of the crash and had reached the same conclusion as the NTSB,' Luibrand said.

``It factors down to a failure to train and supervise the operation of the flight.'

After her husband's death, Lynn Scully moved to East Greenbush, N.Y., with children, Erin, 7, and Thomas, 4, to be closer to her mother and sister.

Brian Scully, who earned more than $50,000 a year as a mechanic, was the family's sole breadwinner, Luibrand said.

Airborne Express officials would not comment on the lawsuit. In response to the NTSB's report earlier this week, the airline denied that pilots had not been properly trained.

``These pilots were all extensively trained as to the proper procedures in which to perform the stall maneuver required for the functional evaluation flight,' the statement said.

Luibrand did not know if the other crash victims, who were all Airborne Express employees, had filed lawsuits.

``Brian's situation is different,' Luibrand said. ``He was the only person (on the plane) not employed by Airborne.'

Luibrand said he expects the case to go to trial.

Staff Writer Peter Krouse contributed to this story.