The family of a 4-year-old girl who died when the homebuilt airplane she was riding in crash-landed in a parking lot along the Oregon coast has filed a $35 million lawsuit against the company that sold the kit used to make the plane.
The suit seeks damages from Van's Aircraft of Aurora for the death of Zoey Wahl, as well as for injuries to the girl's mother, April Gleason. Gleason suffered a broken back, sternum and rib cage in the May 31, 2014, crash. Despite those injuries, she gave CPR to her daughter until emergency responders arrived.
The suit was filed last week in Marion County Circuit Court. A representative from Van's Aircraft declined comment Friday, citing the pending litigation.
The suit contends that homebuilt airplanes pose a danger to the general public because they don't have to pass vigorous safety standards and that kit manufacturers -- including Van's Aircraft -- recklessly sell the kits to drive up profits.
The girl was flying with her mother and step-grandfather from Newport to her home in Seattle when they crashed into the grounds of the Georgia-Pacific paper mill just a few miles from takeoff.
The girl and her step-grandfather -- Douglas Nebert, 51, of Newport -- were pronounced dead at the scene. Nebert had been piloting the plane.
A blockage cut off fuel to the engine, the suit says.
Nebert built the RV-10, a four-seat, single-engine propeller plane, from a kit made by Van's Aircraft, according to the suit. It sells for about $45,000.
The suit claims that Van's Aircraft exploited a Federal Aviation Administration loophole for "experimental" planes -- also known as "homebuilt" or "amateur-built" planes. The FAA doesn't require the same rigorous testing for homebuilt planes as it does for professionally built planes, the suit states.
"Van's recklessly sells its aircraft kits to ordinary consumers by ensuring them that even though those consumers are deemed the 'builder' of the aircraft, they do not need any experience or special knowledge to safely assemble the aircraft, but can safely assemble the aircraft by following Van's detailed assembly plans and utilizing Van's support," the suit states.
Van's Aircraft is one of the largest kit manufacturers in the U.S. The company is located at the Aurora State Airport, a 30-minute drive south of Portland.
Ten percent of U.S. aircraft -- about 33,000 -- are homebuilt, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. They account for 21 percent of fatal accidents, the board said.
Matthew Clarke, the Portland attorney representing Gleason and the girl's estate, told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Monday that the more lenient safety standards allow Van's Aircraft to sell its kits at a cheaper price than professionally built aircraft. That has allowed the company to gain a leg up on competitors that don't sell kits.
Clarke said the loosened FAA standards for homebuilt planes were meant to foster "the spirit of invention" and innovation among individual Americans who know what they're doing.
In addition to Van's Aircraft, the suit lists the FloScan Instrument Co. of Seattle as a defendant. The suit claims that FloScan sold a defective fuel flow transducer that Nebert installed shortly before the fatal flight.
A representative from FloScan didn't return a call for comment Monday.
Read the lawsuit.
-- Aimee Green
503-294-5119