iHeartMedia’s Total Traffic & Weather Network has been ordered to pay $50 million to the family of WBTV Charlotte meteorologist Jason Myers as part of a settlement following his November 2022 death in a helicopter crash.
North Carolina state Superior Court Judge Forrest Bridges ordered Total Traffic & Weather Network and parent companies iHeartCommunications and iHeartMedia to pay $50 million as owners of the helicopter, which crashed in November 2022 onto Interstate 77 killing Myers and pilot Chip Tayag. The duo were on a training program to simulate a news scene at the time of the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board had determined last year that a loose bolt and improperly installed hardware including a nut, palnut, two washers and two hat-shaped spacers fell out of their intended position holding the main rotor in place during the flight. TTWN was found to not provide adequate inspections prior to the flight.
Myers’ widow Jillian Myers told WCNC-TV, “There is no acceptable amount of money that rights the wrongful and preventable events that robbed me of the Love of my life, our children of their father, and Jason’s family of their son and brother. This settlement does not bring back the man we lost, but it does represent a formal acknowledgment of the profound impact his death has had on our family.”
iHeartMedia’s $50 million payment will be part of a larger $126.3 million judgement with the remainder due to be paid by insurers.
This story first appeared on radioinsight.com