Tamarack Aerospace to fly out of Chapter 11

A Sandpoint-based aerospace company is working to emerge from bankruptcy.

Tamarack Aerospace Group has filed a Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization with the Eastern District of Washington. The filed plan includes repayment of all creditors in full. An Oct. 31 hearing has been scheduled with the Eastern District of Washington to consider approval of the disclosure statement, related to the plan.

The company filed for Chapter 11 on June 1 after reports surfaced about a problem with its active winglet after-market parts for Cessna CitationJet planes, now produced by Textron Inc.

One of these products, the Tamarack Active Load Alleviation System (ATLAS) Active Winglet, had a flaw that resulted in five incidents of “aircraft uncommanded roll events,” which pilots had to correct. The problem was caused by a screw that was able to work its way loose.

On April 19, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the European equivalent of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), imposed severe limitations on the ability of planes with the modification to fly until the flaw was corrected. The company had developed a fix for the problem and was in the process of rolling it out to its customers when an additional incident occurred on a plane that hadn’t yet received the upgrade, which led the FAA to ground planes with the modification altogether in the U.S. on May 24.

Consequently, Tamarack Aerospace wasn’t able to sell its ATLAS winglet for more than two months, which led to the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In June and July, the company resumed sales and sold three of the winglet kits, installing one in late July. The company also received almost $2 million in financing in early August to help it through the reorganization.