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NASCAR sues plane maker over crash
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NASCAR and one of its affiliated company have filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer that made the plane that crashed into a Central Florida neighborhood, killing five people in July of 2007.
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According to court documents, NASCAR says that Cessna -- the maker of the Cessna 310 owned by NASCAR -- crashed entirely due to the manufacturer's negligence, and that the plane's instructions, warnings, inspections and repairs for the aircraft were inadequate.
NASCAR pilot Michael Klemm and 54-year-old Dr. Bruce Kennedy flew the Cessna 310 together on the morning of July 10, 2007 on flight from Daytona Beach to Lakeland. Ten minutes after they were airborne they began experiencing problems in the cockpit of the twin-engine aircraft.
Klemm and Kennedy were one minute shy of an emergency landing at Sanford Orlando International Airport, but the plane suddenly veered to the right, clipped a tree and crashed into two houses inside The Preserve at Lake Monroe subdivision in Sanford.
Both men were killed on impact. Kennedy's widow is Lesa France Kennedy, president of NASCAR sister company International Speedway Corp.
The National Transportation Safety Board has not yet released its final report on the cause of the crash. But NASCAR already believes the accident was caused by an electrical fault in the aircraft wiring installed in the aircraft by the manufacturer in 1977.
The lawsuit is seeking reimbursement for the money the racing giant's insurance company already paid to the families of the people killed on the ground: a woman and an infant in one home, and a 4-year-old girl in the house next door. Three people on the ground were burned, two badly, but survived.
Asked why NASCAR's insurer paid the claims of those people on the ground when the racing giant was denying responsibility, NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said, "Certainly, no one wanted to make the families on the ground wait for payment. It's not uncommon for insurance companies to make payment and then seek reimbursement later."
Since 1983, 461 accidents have involved a Cessna 310 model, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Air Safety Foundation accident database. Of those accidents, 137 involved at least one fatality.
The affiliate company named in the lawsuit is the Competitor Liaison Bureau, Inc.
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