WIDOW OF CRASH VICTIM FILES SUIT AGAINST PILOT, FLIGHT SCHOOL
By Ann W. O'Neill Staff Writer
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Copyright 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel. All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, July 3, 2003
LOCAL
The widow and children of a chiropractor killed last month in a
collision
between two small planes off Deerfield Beach have sued the flight
school and
the estate of the pilot of the other plane. The suit, filed in Palm
Beach
Circuit Court on Tuesday, was the first litigation to arise from
the June 17
crash, which killed the pilots of both planes and three passengers.
In her suit, Beverly A. Bauer of Boca Raton alleges negligence by
Gulfstream
Academy of Aeronautics, which owned the single-engine Cessna 172
airplane flown
by John Mark Willey. The native Texan and licensed pilot was studying
for his
commercial pilot's license at the school in Fort Lauderdale.
The suit alleges that Willey, 39, operated the plane negligently.
The flight
school was negligent in entrusting the aircraft to him, personal
injury
attorney Robert M. Montgomery Jr. contends in the legal papers.
Dr. Douglas Bauer, who ran the Diagnostic Back Center in Boca Raton
for 17
years, was a passenger in a single-engine Cessna 182 flown by his
best friend,
Steven Ross, a chaplain at Boca Raton Christian School.
Ross, 46, and Bauer, 48, were returning from missionary work in
the Bahamas
when the two planes collided almost head-on at dusk about a half-mile
off
Deerfield Beach. Also killed in the crash were Willey's wife, Susan,
43, and
daughter, Shelbi, 12, who were along for a short ride up the coast
and back to
Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is looking into
the crash, has
not yet assessed who was at fault. The NTSB investigation is expected
to take
six months.
The suit seeks damages in excess of $15,000, but a settlement demand
included
with the court papers is asking court approval of an insurance payout
between
$1 million and $10 million.