Court: Lockheed Martin is liable for the fatal crash in 2015

The US defender Lockheed Martin has to compensate for the families of two Hellenic Air Force pilots who died in Spain at a NATO training accident from 2015 in Spain at the beginning of this year.

The decision takes place 10 years after the incident, one of the deadliest accidents in NATO. The accident in January 2015 took place during a NATO exercise in the Los Llanos Air Base near Albacete, Spain.

A Greek two-seater F-16 fell just 7.8 seconds after the start and killed both pilot captain Panagiotis LASKARIS (35) and co-pilot Athanasios Zagas, 31st nine French military personnel were also killed, and 33 were injured. Three NATO aircraft were destroyed.

Athens' Court of Appeal decided that Lockheed Martin did not carry out appropriate security measures.

Relatives of the Greek pilots submitted a lawsuit in 2017. The Greek dishes initially dismissed the case due to a lack of jurisdiction, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that Greek courts had authority.

The decision of the Court of Appeal on March 17th caused Lockheed Martin for design errors and the lack of warning systems that could have prevented the fatal crash. Lockheed Martin denied any responsibility and quoted the proper production and existing security protocols.

It also claimed that the plane was structurally solid and that the pilot error played an important role.