CLEARWATER, Fla. — Together for more than twenty years, it's been difficult for Robert "Bobby" Dixon to figure out how to get through life after losing his wife.
Mary Ellen Pender was one of three people killed when a small plane crashed into a mobile home park in Clearwater in early February. Dixon has now filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the pilot's estate and his company.
"He's just trying to figure out how to get through every day without the love of his life," Marc Matthews, Dixon's attorney, said.
Matthews said the lawsuit would not only provide some closure to Dixon but allow them to find more answers and hopefully, prevent another similar tragedy from happening.
A preliminary report from NTSB said Jemin Patel, the pilot, who was also killed in the crash, reported engine failure and was unable to see the runway. Patel also announced there was a fire.
Matthews said they allege there was negligent maintenance and repair of the plane.
"We do have some information on that that led us to be able to file the lawsuit, but we are trying to find more information through this lawsuit as far as what the maintenance and repairs were done, what his ability or inability was to be able to identify the airpark where he was trying to land, and essentially what really led to causing this crash," Matthews said.
Known for her infectious smile, Pender worked as a nurse in the emergency room and was always willing to help others, Matthews said.
Matthews said that's what Pender was doing the night she died by helping clean up at her friend Martha Parry's mobile home after a night of socializing.
Moments later, the plane would crash, killing Parry, too.
Described as the quintessential matriarch of the family, Parry, like Pender, split time between Florida and the northeast. Parry was a grandmother to eleven children and just had her first great-grandchild born.
"She had a vibrant social life down here. She loved to golf. She loved to have parties. She lived in the mobile home community in Clearwater where she was loved by everybody in that community," Erin Applebaum, the attorney for Parry's estate, said.
Applebaum said loved ones and the legal team are in the process of collecting more information before filing suit. That process will include having independent investigators look at the wreckage and identifying all possible defendants.
"The wreckage is everything, so we need our experts to go out and investigate the wreckage and look at it and see what went wrong," Applebaum said.
The NTSB is still investigating the crash, but attorneys said they vow to help the loved ones of those lost find closure.
"This really isn't about money for him. It's about trying to figure out what happened and trying to figure out what caused this," Matthews said.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to the representative of the estate of Patel and Control Data, Inc. and is waiting to hear back.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly used Nixon instead of Dixon.