Two lawsuits were filed Tuesday in Hartford Superior Court against the Collings Foundation as a result of the B-17 plane crash at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks that killed seven people.
The first lawsuit was filed on behalf of eight of the 10 passengers who were on the Oct. 2, 2019, flight and seeks unspecified monetary donations.
The plaintiffs allege that Collings did not have the “resources to monitor and inspect Collings flight operations on a regular ongoing basis and ignored promises the foundation made to the Federal Aviation Administration.”
The lawsuit also claims negligence on the part of the Collings Foundation resulted in the passengers’ deaths and in permanent physical and emotional injuries to the passengers who survived.
The lawsuit alleges that several passengers sat on the floor of the plane’s fuselage, rather than in approved seats, and that they were never instructed in how to use the seatbelts.
The suit claims that one passenger had a seat belt that didn’t work and he was completely unrestrained at the time of the crash.
The lawsuit was filed by law firm Shipman & Goodwin on behalf of the estates of Robert Riddell of East Granby, Robert Rubner of Tolland, James Roberts of Ludlow, Massachusetts, who died in the crash.
Passengers who survived who are also plaintiffs include Joseph Huber of the Tarriffville section of Simsbury, Thomas and Linda Schmidt of Suffield, James Traficante of Simsbury, and Andrew Barrett of South Hadley, Massachusetts.
Two other passengers who died in the crash, Gary Mazzone of the Broad Brook section of East Windsor and David Broderick of West Springfield, Massachusetts, are not listed as part of the first lawsuit.
Mazzone’s wife filed a second lawsuit citing similar claims. She is represented by the law firm Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder PC.
The lawsuit, which maintains that Colings’ failed to ensure the passengers’ safety, seeks unspecified monetary damages.
The Collings Foundation declined to comment.
“In order to obtain technical experiences and expertise, the National Transportation Safety Board made the Collings Foundation a party to the pending accident investigation. In that role, the foundation is prohibited both by the certification of party representative and by federal regulations, from commenting on this matter and disseminating information that is the subject of investigation,” the foundation said in a statement.
Along with the five passengers who died, the two pilots operating the plane also died when the 1944 Boeing B-17 crashed.
The plane, which had 13 people aboard, crashed Oct. 2 shortly after takeoff. Passengers had paid $450 to fly in the vintage aircraft.
According to the NTSB’s official narrative of the crash in a preliminary report, one of the plane’s pilots radioed an air traffic controller about five minutes into the flight to request permission to land back at Bradley. When asked if he needed assistance, the pilot replied “no.”
The controller then asked why the crew was seeking clearance to land so soon after takeoff and the pilot reported a technical problem affecting one of the engines.
As the B-17 returned back to the airfield, the controller canceled the approach of another plane to make way and cleared the flight to land on runway six. When the controller asked about the aircraft’s progress toward the landing zone, the pilot replied that they were “getting there.”
This was the final communication from the B-17 to air traffic control.
Based on witness statements and airport surveillance video, investigators determined that the plane struck approach lights about 1,000 feet prior to the runway and hit the ground before crashing into a group of vehicles and a deicing fluid tank about 1,100 feet right of the center of the runway threshold.
The report all but rules out weather as a contributing factor. Winds were calm, there were few clouds, and the pilots would have had visibility of 10 statute miles.
The plane involved was a Boeing B-17G variant with the civil registration N93012. It was manufactured in 1944, issued a limited airworthiness certificate in 1994, and fitted with passenger seats in 1995.
The aircraft’s most recent annual inspection was completed on Jan. 16, 2019.
The Federal Aviation Administration in March revoked the foundation’s permission to carry passengers aboard its World War II-era planes.
