NASCAR and one of its companies are suing Cessna for damages, saying the aircraft company’s negligence and its faulty plane are responsible for a crash last year that killed five people.
The plane that slammed into two houses in Sanford in July 2007 was “unreasonably dangerous and defective,” and Cessna’s instructions, warnings, inspections and repairs for the aircraft were inadequate, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in circuit court.
Cessna attorneys could not be reached for comment, and a spokesman for the Kansas-based company said he couldn’t discuss pending litigation. The spokesman did say he’s not sure if anyone else has sued Cessna over the July 2007 crash.
The amount of money sought in the lawsuit is not specified, but NASCAR has already paid at least $1 million to the family of one of the two men killed in the plane, 56-year-old Michael Klemm, a NASCAR pilot.
Klemm and 54-year-old Dr. Bruce Kennedy flew together in the Cessna 310R the morning of July 10, 2007. The two men were on a recreational flight from Daytona Beach to Lakeland. Ten minutes after they got into the air, 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 suddenly the plane veered to the right, clipped a tree and crashed into two houses inside The Preserve at Lake Monroe subdivision in Sanford.
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