CLEARWATER, Fla. — The husband of a woman killed when a plane crashed into the mobile home she and a friend were in is now suing the deceased pilot's estate and the company he owned and worked for, according to court documents.
On Feb. 1, Mary Ellen Pender, 54, was visiting her friend, 86-year-old Martha Parry, at her home on Pagoda Drive in Clearwater's Bayside Waters community. According to police, earlier that evening as many as nine people had been inside the mobile home but all but Pender and Parry had left before the crash.
As Pender and Parry were spending time together that evening, 54-year-old Jemin Patel took off in his single-engine plane from Vero Beach Regional Airport. His destination was the Clearwater Airpark in central Pinellas County. He never made it.
Just after 7 p.m. that evening, Patel called "mayday, mayday, mayday" before he and the Beechcraft Bonanza V35 he was piloting crashed into the mobile home community, directly hitting Parry's house.
An air traffic control recording caught Patel saying, "I can't see the other airport. I'm losing engine." The resulting crash into the mobile home park ignited several homes, prompting a large emergency response.
Parry, Pender and Patel all died.
Months later, Pender's widower, Robert Dixon is suing Patel's estate and Control Data, the company he reportedly owned and worked for. An amended lawsuit was filed on Aug. 21 after the initial filing back in July.
The lawsuit claims Patel and his company were responsible for the crash because he failed to "operate and maintain" the plane in a "safe manner" as dictated by Florida law. The plane was owned by the "foreign profit corporation," which is reportedly headquartered in Brevard County.
Dixon is suing for negligence and damages, amounting to an excess of $50,000, and is demanding a jury trial for this case.