The families of all 14 soldiers killed in an Aug. 22, 2007, crash of a Black Hawk helicopter in northern Iraq have filed a federal lawsuit against a maintenance contractor alleging that a small spool of wire or other foreign object was left in the tail-rotor housing, and that it bound against the tail-rotor drive shaft and caused the chopper to plummet to earth.

Ten of the soldiers were scouts with the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry "Cacti" at Schofield Barracks. The four-man crew was from Fort Lewis, Wash.

It was the single worst loss of life for the 25th Infantry Division since the Vietnam War.

L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace, a Delaware corporation, but principally operating out of Mississippi, is named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed Thursday in a U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The suit said the UH-60 Black Hawk had just been through a maintenance procedure known as a "phased maintenance inspection" that was performed or supervised by L-3.

"The mechanics who performed and/or supervised the (maintenance) were negligent," the lawsuit states. "More specifically, they were negligent in leaving the spool or other foreign object in the helicopter and/or failing to discover that it had been left in the helicopter."

Jim Valenzuela, a California resident whose stepson, Staff Sgt. Jason L. Paton, 25, was killed in the crash, on Friday said attorneys had advised the family not to talk about the lawsuit.

Richard Harmon, a fire chief in Willoughby Hills, Ohio, who lost his son, Cpl. Joshua S. Harmon, previously said, "Because somebody didn't do their job, we lost 14 wonderful people that day."

"If anything comes out of this at all, I want to make sure that whatever it may be, that I did my part to at least identify what may have caused it, so no other family has to go through this," Harmon said.

L-3 Communications could not be reached for comment Friday, but when asked previously about the lawsuit as it was being prepared, a spokeswoman said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

The suit seeks unspecified wrongful-death damages, and punitive damages for "gross negligence."

"Specifically, defendant knew that foreign objects (including safety-wire spools) could be left in flight-critical parts of helicopters during maintenance procedures," the lawsuit says, "but it failed to adopt and/or reinforce adequate policies to prevent such an event from occurring."

In addition to Harmon and Paton, the Schofield soldiers killed in the crash were Spc. Tyler R. Seideman, Capt. Derek A. Dobogai, Cpl. Jeremy P. Bouffard, Cpl. Phillip J. Brodnick, Cpl. Nathan C. Hubbard, Spc. Michael A. Hook, Sgt. Garrett I. McLead and Cpl. Jessy G. Pollard.

The night mission involving two UH-60 Black Hawk and two OH-58D Kiowa helicopters was to pick up two "small kill teams" totaling 20 soldiers who had been dropped off the night before for a mission in Multaka, near the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk.

Seconds into the flight, when the 18,000-pound chopper was about 150 feet up and as the helicopter fought for higher air, Capt. Corry P. Tyler, the pilot in command, made his last radio call.

"1-2 is going down," he said.

Witnesses in accompanying helicopters reported between one and four rotations as the Black Hawk plummeted back to earth.

TAIL-ROTOR SHAFT CUT

The Army investigation report, obtained by The Advertiser through the Freedom of Information Act, found that the soldiers suffered blunt-force injuries in an impact of 150 Gs, or 150 times the force of gravity.

A fighter pilot coming out of a dive can experience up to nine Gs.

Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. general in Iraq, signed a Feb. 10 "memorandum for record" that said the Corpus Christi Army Depot inspected the downed Black Hawk airframe and discovered a gouged and cut tail-rotor shaft.

An "unknown foreign object" in the tail-rotor housing traveled aft and became lodged between the housing and the tail-rotor drive shaft, causing gouging and cutting damage to the tail rotor, which then failed by sheering forces while under torque, Odierno's memo states.

Tom Harkness, an attorney representing the families, pointed to a damaged safety-wire spool that was found at the wreck site. The wire is used like a cotter pin to prevent nuts from vibrating off bolts, and panels provide access inside the tail-rotor housing, he said.

SAW HIS BROTHER DIE

In the suit, Jason Hubbard seeks "mental anguish" damages from witnessing the death of his brother, Nathan Hubbard.

Jason Hubbard was in the Army and in the accompanying Black Hawk at the time of the crash. A second brother, Jared, had been killed previously in Iraq.

Jason Hubbard left the Army as a "sole survivor," but found the Army then tried to deny him benefits. Legislation was proposed, and President Bush is expected to sign into law the "Hubbard Act," which is named after the California brothers and protects the pay and benefits of sole survivors.

L-3 Communications said on its Web site that it is the sixth-largest defense company in the U.S., working in areas including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, secure communications, government services, training and maintenance.

A pilot who had flown the Black Hawk on the mission before the crash said in the investigation that "it was a sweet aircraft, so smooth that you could barely feel the rotors turning."

The pilot also said, "L-3 runs a good safety program, and they are very thorough. They fall right in line with the Army program. I heard once L-3 ran out to an aircraft and had them shut down when they couldn't locate a tool in the hangar. I think they take safety very seriously."