WASHINGTON, DC  (AP) — A fiery January crash of a B-1 bomber in South Dakota was caused by multiple crew failures, terrible winter weather and a last-minute brush with wind shear that resulted in all four members ejecting and the total loss of the $450 million warplane, Air Force Global Strike Command said Thursday.

The command’s report was unusually blunt in describing what the investigation uncovered about the crews involved in the evening crash at Ellsworth Air Force Base. The investigators said the crash exposed an “organizational culture that tolerated decaying airmanship skills, a lack of discipline, poor communication, and inadequate focus on regulations.”

The report is what is used to inform Air Force decisions on disciplinary action, so it is not yet clear whether any of the crew or their leaders will be disciplined as a result of the crash.

The B-1 is one of three long-range U.S. bombers. The supersonic aircraft carries conventional weapons and is capable of taking off from the U.S. to strike targets overseas in a single mission. The aging warplane is being maintained by the Air Force until the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber comes online.

On the night of the accident, the B-1 was the second of two bombers on a training flight that were about to land in quickly deteriorating winter weather. While both bombers came in too low for the weather they were facing, the first was able to correct its speed and altitude to land in visibility so poor the control tower could see neither the bomber nor its taxi lights once it landed.

The second bomber also came in too low, but inside the cockpit, the crew was not doing what was required — relaying specific communications to one another and taking responsibility to monitor and cross-check the aircraft’s instrument readings to ensure they maintained the needed speed, altitude and descent.

In the final 55 seconds of flight, the bomber encountered wind shear, and the pilot’s reactions resulted in the aircraft losing too much power. But neither the pilot nor a supervisory instructor pilot caught that in time, because they were looking outside the aircraft instead of monitoring their instruments, and the required communications that might have caught the error did not occur.

Another crew member responsible for assisting with cross-checking testified they were reading a post-landing checklist instead of backstopping the instruments, the investigators found. The flight became unrecoverable. As the B-1 hit the ground short of the runway all four crew members successfully ejected.

Almost every part of the flight exposed problems, even the ejection, the investigation found.

While the scathing report has suggested there may be larger issues at Ellsworth to address, it also has raised questions on whether continued strain on personnel, resources and aircraft availability — an issue that military aviation overall is facing — played a role.

Primarily, communication and supervision had eroded not only inside the crashed bomber, but also within its squadron and even from the control tower. A pre-flight squadron brief did not include a key advisory that required the crews to approach at a higher altitude, given the lost visibility, and investigators found that none of the eight aviators aboard the two bombers knew the Air Force’s instructions for the cold weather they were flying in. There was a “willful disregard” for the equipment each crew member was required to wear, a lack of which was found possibly to have added to the injuries they received from ejecting.

After the crash, two members of the maintenance crew failed toxicology tests. And while each crew member survived, the instructor pilot was injured during the ejection likely because he weighed at least the maximum of 245 pounds that the ejection seat could support. A few days after the crash he weighed in at 260 pounds, among many other discrepancies, the report found.

On the airfield, communications were also broken down. A key sensor on their runway that could have told the crews how bad visibility was had been malfunctioning for months, and while air traffic control knew it was broken, the squadron did not. At the time of the crash the control tower knew on-the-ground visibility was zero but did not communicate that to anyone, and neither did the first bomber. Even as the first of the two bombers flying that evening landed, it did not relay information back to the second aircraft that the visibility conditions were “minnest of mins,” the report found.

But ultimately, the second bomber crashed as a result of the crew having “succumbed to complacency and fixation, while the (instructor pilot) was ineffective in his crew leadership and instructor supervision duties,” the investigators found.

There are about 45 B-1 bombers still flying, split between Ellsworth and Dyess Air Force Base in Texas. After the crash Ellsworth’s remaining bombers and their crews were temporarily relocated to Dyess for operation and training.

Charles Hoffman, a spokesman for Global Strike Command, said it was notable that just a month after the crash and relocating, Ellsworth’s B-1s were able to regroup and were responsible for the successful retaliatory strikes on 85 Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Syria in response to an attack on U.S. forces that killed three service members.

“They traveled over 30 hours non-stop, round trip, delivered the strike package, and returned to Dyess,” Hoffman said.

Prior to the accident, the flying hours and personnel at Ellsworth were stretched thin to maximize resources for operating the B-1 squadrons at Dyess, which may also have contributed to the accident.

Some crew members didn’t get to fly nearly the number of hours per month needed to remain proficient. The report revealed the instructor pilot had flown just 5.6 hours in the B-1 in the 60 days prior to the crash.

Many mid-level leadership posts responsible for supervision and for ensuring critical flight information was disseminated were left unstaffed, “severing the connective tissue” across the squadron and overwhelming the officers who were left to complete those leftover tasks. As a result, many tasks were pushed down to more junior aviators.

At the time of the mishap the 34th Bomb Squadron director of operations “testified that he elected to focus on administrative office work,” despite the worsening weather and knowing he had a junior non-instructor pilot serving as the flight supervisor.

The breakdowns “all speak to culture and leadership issues,” the investigation found.

 

 

 

SPRINGFIELD, S.D. (Hunter Dunteman / The Dakota Scout)— Convicted sex offender and failed Republican state Senate candidate Joel Koskan has been appointed a new attorney after claims his last lawyer was “outright refusing” his phone calls as part of his attempt to vacate his decade-long prison sentence.

More than six months after Koskan pleaded guilty to two counts of incest in 2023 — charges which stemmed from a sexual relationship with his adopted daughter — he filed a civil lawsuit asking the court to review and ultimately toss out his sentence, claiming a multitude of issues under which his rights were violated.

But the lawsuit is moving slowly, according to news reports in The Dakota Scout and has yet to be heard in court. In a letter written to Judge Christina Klinger on May 24, Koskan said he had gone roughly five months without receiving a response.  “I have sent at least 10 letters to him, if not 15, and he has been unresponsive,” Koskan wrote. “I believe I have been able to speak on the phone three or four times.”

He added that the lack of communication was affecting his ability to properly execute his bid for release from prison, and that time was of the essence.

“I know if I do not do my habeas correctly the first time, I will not be able to do a second habeas,” Koskan wrote. “I am requesting for new counsel to be appointed.”

More than a month after Koskan’s letter was dated, Knecht requested he be allowed to withdraw from the case.

“This motion is due to a breakdown in the attorney-client relationship, and [my] desire for [myself] to withdraw from representation in his case,” Knecht wrote to the judge.

The order was approved and attorney Edward Angel was appointed as a replacement.

It’s unclear when Koskan was notified of the change, if at all. Roughly two weeks after the lawyer swap, on July 11, Koskan again wrote to Klinger, saying Knecht was still ignoring his attempts to reach him.

“My court-appointed attorney Andrew Knecht has failed to take my phone calls and at this point is outright refusing to answer any calls,” Koskan wrote in his July 11 letter. “He has taken a total of three of my phone calls out of hundreds of times I have called and tried to make contact.”

A representative from Angel’s firm said Angel is currently at trial, and would not be returning phone calls until at least July 27. Knecht did not respond to a request for comment.

According to court records, no date has been established for Koskan’s case to be heard.

The civil lawsuit was filed in Mellette County, and requests the court to bring forth Mike Durfee State Prison Warden Brent Fluke to determine whether Koskan’s detention in the Springfield prison is lawful.

Koskan is ultimately seeking his sentence to be suspended or entirely vacated. In the original lawsuit, he cites nine grounds for relief which he believes are reasons for the overturn of his sentence.

Arguably his most significant claim focuses on his adoptive daughter.

South Dakota codified law doesn’t include adopted children in its definition of incest, Koskan claims. Instead, the statute hinges on consanguinity — a relationship based on blood. While state law does prohibit sexual activity between parents and their children of half- or whole-blood, the specific statute Koskan was prosecuted under does not indicate whether adoption qualifies a person as a half- or whole-blood relative.

He also cited a 2009 South Dakota Supreme Court opinion, in which the high court agreed that former state lawmaker Ted Klaudt could not have committed incest with a foster daughter due to a lack of blood relation. Klaudt was convicted of rape for other acts.

Beyond Koskan’s claim of the definition of incest, he also accused prosecutors of selective prosecution, arguing that his adoptive daughter should have also been prosecuted for incest and other crimes.

“She confessed to several other crimes including obstruction of justice by lying to law enforcement and the crime of … incest,” Koskan’s lawsuit reads. “She was not held to the same standard.”

Other grounds for relief which Koskan argues include:

Violations of Article III Constitution

Violations of his Fifth Amendment rights

Court-ordered marriage counseling for his wife, who was never charged

Inadequate and/or ineffective counsel

Inappropriate communication between the judge and the victim, and more

It’s unclear when Koskan’s case could be potentially scheduled to be heard in court.

 

 

SIOUX CITY, IA – The Western Iowa Tech Community College Board of Directors voted to settle another human trafficking lawsuit against the school, this time agreeing to pay $2.3 million to Brazilian students while denying legal responsibility.

The board had a special session Wednesday at 3 p.m. and voted to approve the settlement. Eight out of nine board members were in attendance and they all voted in favor of the settlement. Board member Erin Muck was absent from the vote.

Earlier this year, the community college settled a separate lawsuit from a different set of students from Chile, though with the same general allegations, for $3 million. The school also paid about two million dollars to its lawyers to fight the lawsuits, bringing the total cost to just over $7 million.

WITCC President Terry Murrell strongly denied that the school participated in human trafficking, and said the students were free to leave the program at anytime. Many of the students did leave, he said, with the majority satisfactorily completing their one-year program.

”The U.S. State Department did a full investigation of the program and they had some suggestions of things we needed to do different,” said President Terry Murrell. “But there were no sanctions, there were no penalties at that time.”

According to the judge in the case settled Wednesday by the college, the plaintiffs allege WITCC recruited them through a visa program promising them internships in their field of study. But instead, the plaintiffs said they were forced to work “unskilled jobs at meatpacking plants.”

The plaintiffs alleged the college worked with a staffing company to place the students in those manual-labor jobs and only paid the students minimum wage. The college eventually ended the visa program after a federal investigation began, and the students left school housing in March 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The plaintiffs wrote in a filing that the students were promised internships in culinary arts and/or robotics but instead were placed in jobs handling dog food and other manual labor positions.

Murrell defended the placement, telling assembled media it was difficult for the school and its job placement agency to find better internships, especially with 50-60 students in the program.

“The jobs we have in Siouxland are in many ways food processing,” he said. “And that’s who we are.”

According to the same filing, the students obtained “T-Visas,” which are visas for non-citizens allowing them to stay in the U.S. T-Visas are for the victims of crime who are aiding law enforcement in an investigation.

Murrell said the school settled the lawsuit for financial reasons, not because they did anything legally wrong.

“Litigation is long, expensive and unpredictable. As good financial stewards, we determined the best way to manage financial risk was to settle,” he said. “I am grateful to close this chapter and focus on the future.”

Murrell said the college’s insurance is expected to pay most if not all of the settlement amount, though negotiations were still ongoing. If the insurance company declined to cover some of the bill, the remaining amount would be paid out of the school’s reserve accounts.

Court filings state the plaintiffs intended to seek $1-to-$5 million in “non-economic” damages, but in the end they settled the case for $2.3 million against the school Wednesday.

On July 10, the judge ruled each plaintiff must tell the defendants the total amount of damages, non-economic, punitive and compensatory, they planned to ask the jury for. For example, the judge said, if the plaintiffs were seeking $350 a day for each day they were in the visa program, they were required to disclose it.

In the same ruling, the judge denied a request from the defendants seeking “an entire download of the social media accounts” for each plaintiff. The judge ruled the defendants’ request was too broad.

The lawsuit settled Wednesday includes plaintiffs Jacqueline De Britto Bucco, Antonio Diego Barbosa Coutinho, Ana Paula Oliveira De Souza Costa, Carilyns Sarai Camus Jorquera Jorquera, Vinicius Assad De Magalhaes, Brian De Souza Melo, Marcos Vinicius Morais Pinto, Silmar Da Silva Reis, Cesar Priester Rosa, Jr., Nestor Alonso Acevedo Contreras and Leila Silva Freire Soares.

They’re suing Western Iowa Tech, J&L Staffing and Recruiting, Royal Canin USA, Tur-Pak Foods, Juline Albert, Nancy Albrecht, Rosana Salgado Burright, Terry Murrell, Terry YI, James Zuercher and Lilly Castro.

The settlement on Wednesday means the case against WITCC, Terry Yi, Rosana Salgado Burright, Juline Albert, Terry Murrell, James Zuercher and Lilly Castro is over.

Recent filings indicate the students’ case against J&L, Nancy Albrecht and Royal Canin is still alive, meaning the students could recover more money than what was paid by the college alone.

 

 

LINCOLN, NE (Deborah Van Fleet / Nebraska News Connection) – As Nebraska state lawmakers convene for a special session on property tax reform called by Gov. Jim Pillen, groups are weighing in on the details Pillen has released so far.

The governor’s goal is to cut property taxes by 40% to 50%, which includes the state taking over funding of K-through-12 schools. A majority of the additional revenue needed would come from higher sales taxes and/or eliminating sales-tax exemptions for around 100 goods and services.

Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen said the governor’s plan is missing one leg of the “three-legged tax reform stool” – income taxes – which he said puts legislators in a difficult position.

“By taking income taxes off the table,” he said, “the governor has already limited the Legislature’s ability to come up with a solution to the property tax problem that leaves our state with a more fair and balanced tax system, that is also more widely supported by citizens.”

Hansen said he fears the governor’s approach will cause state sales taxes to be “out of balance” and regressive – with lower-income earners paying a larger portion of their income in sales taxes than those will higher incomes. Property tax reform has been a priority of the Nebraska Farmers Union for more than three decades.

Hansen said Pillen pushed for income tax cuts for individuals and corporations in the last legislative session, despite there being no “outcry” for income tax relief.

“If you add up the first three years of those combined income tax cuts,” he said, “it more than equals the amount of additional revenue that the governor needs to fund the property tax reductions that he wants.”

In addition to placing a higher burden on low-income Nebraskans, Hansen argued the governor’s plan would give a huge benefit to some of the state’s wealthiest residents.

“For the folks who own large amounts of property and also make large amounts of income, the governor’s giving them a double tax-cut benefit,” he said. “He substanstially lowers both their property taxes and their income taxes, and these are the folks who already have most of the wealth.”

According to the Lincoln Journal-Star, Pillen’s property tax plan would save him nearly $1 million a year in property taxes.

 

 

HIBBING, MN (Mark Richardson / Minnesota News Connection) – Traveling around rural Minnesota can be difficult but in more than half the state, nonprofit transit systems are helping people get where they need to go. Now, the system is expanding.

Arrowhead Transit will begin service in the Hibbing area on Aug. 1. The system already delivers fixed route and on-demand services to residents across northeastern Minnesota, from the Canadian border to the north suburbs of Minneapolis. A different service, Tri-CAP, provides service in five east-central counties.

Dominick Olivanti, marketing and public relations director for Arrowhead Transit, said they are committed to serving rural Minnesotans.

“We are the largest rural transportation system in the state of Minnesota, and the second-largest in the country by land miles,” Olivanti pointed out. “We cover over 23,000 square miles, which is larger than the state of Vermont.”

The services are operated under the authority of the Federal Transportation Administration, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The Hibbing service kicks off Aug. 1 with a ribbon-cutting at city hall at 1 p.m.

The transit systems are under the general auspices of the Minnesota Community Action Partnership, an umbrella organization with 24 Community Action Agencies and 11 tribal nations serving all 87 counties. In addition to transportation, the partnership provides a variety of programs and services designed to fight poverty.

Lori Schultz, executive director of the Minnesota Community Action Partnership, said transit services are important to the lives of rural Minnesotans.

“With public transit, medical appointments, getting to employment, getting to work,” Schultz outlined. “Public transit does a lot of rides around that and then, just daily basic needs that we all have, whether we have our own car or not.”

She added the systems run larger buses on fixed routes and smaller buses equipped with wheelchair lifts on dial-a-ride services. All systems charge fares to most passengers on a sliding scale, depending on age or other factors.