A second local lawsuit has been filed in Summit County Common Pleas Court over losses incurred when a corporate jet crashed into an Ellet neighborhood more than a year ago.
Beth Montgomery, one of the tenants of an apartment building destroyed in the crash, has filed a complaint against plane owner ExecuFlight Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and the estates of co-pilots Renato Marchese and Oscar Chavez.
Marchese, Chavez and seven passengers were killed when the plane struck the four-unit brick apartment building at 3042 Mogadore Road. There were no injuries on the ground; all occupants of the apartment building were gone at the time of the crash.
Montgomery, who worked an early morning shift, would have been home if not for a standing weekly date with her son for wings and beer.
Her apartment was destroyed by the crash and resulting fire, and her cat killed. She is seeking $25,000 plus interest, an amount the defendants have refused to pay, the lawsuit stated. The complaint also seeks undetermined “punitive damages” as allowed by law.
Montgomery is represented by William Chris of Roderick, Linton and Belfance. The case was assigned to Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands.
Earlier this month, a suit was filed by Kayleigh Scarpitti and Geoff Priebe, who also lived in the destroyed building. They are seeking nearly $76,000 for loss of property and unspecified punitive damages for emotional distress.
The couple is represented by Orville Reed III of the Akron law firm Stark & Knoll. That suit has been assigned to Judge Joy Oldfield.
The plane crash occurred Nov. 10, 2015, when the 10-seat Raytheon Hawker failed to execute its approach to Akron Fulton International Airport.
The plane had been chartered by a real estate development firm looking for investment opportunities in the Midwest. The investors were on a multistate tour and were on their way from Dayton to Akron when Marchese and Chavez lost control.
In October, the National Transportation Safety Board said the probable cause of the crash was the flight crew’s “mismanagement of the approach and multiple deviations from company standard operating procedures which placed the airplane in an unsafe situation.”
Federal investigators cited numerous mistakes, a “disregard for safety,” and a “casual attitude toward compliance with standards, inadequate hiring, training and operational oversight of the flight crew, and the company’s lack of formal safety program.”
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.