A former employee at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia has been arrested by the federal government and is accused of obstructing an investigation into a deadly 2017 aircraft crash in Mississippi that killed 15 Marines and one sailor.
James Michael Fisher, 67, was arrested July 2, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Mississippi. The former propulsion engineer with the base's C-130 program was living in Portugal at the time of the indictment, which was issued by a federal grand jury.
While court documents in Mississippi were not immediately available Monday, a press release from the U.S. attorney's office alleged that the former Robins Air Force Base employee "knowingly concealed key engineering documents from criminal investigators and made materially false statements to criminal investigators about his past engineering decisions."
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The federal government added that Fisher "engaged in a pattern of conduct intended to avoid scrutiny for his past engineering decisions related to why the crash may have occurred."
The former Robins Air Force Base employee was arrested in Florida last week, according to federal court documents filed in the Middle District of Florida. Fisher surrendered three passports and was let out on $10,000 bond.
Fisher did not return a phone call and text messages Monday afternoon at a number associated with him. Additionally, a Florida attorney representing him did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Military.com.
A spokesperson from the U.S. attorney's office in the Northern District of Mississippi told Military.com that Fisher is set to be arraigned Wednesday.
Fisher's arrest comes nearly seven years to the day after the July 10, 2017, crash. The Marine Corps KC-130 with the call sign "Yanky 72" was carrying 15 Marines and one Navy sailor on board when it went down in a soybean field in Leflore County, Mississippi.
While flying to California at 20,000 feet in the air, a propeller blade came loose, which "initiated the catastrophic sequence of events resulting in the midair breakup of the aircraft and its uncontrollable descent and ultimate destruction," the Marine Corps crash investigation published in a 2018 report detailed. It remains one of the deadliest crashes in that service's history.
"Neither the aircrew nor anybody aboard the KC-130T could have prevented or altered the ultimate outcome after such a failure," the report detailed.
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The report also stated that the propeller blade, which was deteriorating, was not repaired in 2011 when it was supposed to be.
"The investigation concluded that the failure to remediate the corrosion pitting and intergranular cracking was due to deficiencies in the propeller blade overhaul process at [Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex, or WR-ALC], which existed in 2011 and continued up until the shutdown of the WR-ALC propeller blade overhaul process in the fall of 2017," the crash report detailed.
Fisher faces two charges relating to false statements and two charges relating to obstruction of justice. He could potentially face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if convicted.
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and Naval Criminal Investigative Service are all investigating the case, according to the news release.
In 2018, a memorial was established near the crash site to remember the 16 service members, and a stretch of U.S. Highway 82 in Leflore County, Mississippi, was renamed "Yanky 72 Memorial Highway" as well.
Editor's note: This story was updated Monday afternoon with new information from court documents.
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