Tesla employee plane crash update: family of deceased suing pilot, plane owner

In February, a tragic plane crash in East Palo Alto, CA killed three Tesla Motors employees: Doug Bourn, who was piloting the plane, Andrew Ingram and Brian Finn. This week, Ingram's family filed a lawsuit claiming that Bourn and the company that owned the Cessna 310, Air Unique Inc., were negligent in taking care of the plane and that Bourn did not have recent flight experience and was reckless for taking off in foggy weather. The Ingram family is suing Bourn's estate and Air Unique.

Frank Pitre, an attorney for Ingram's estate, said in a written statement:

This plane crash could have been avoided if the owner and operator of the aircraft, Douglas Bourn, demonstrated concern for the safety of his passengers -- instead of blatant disregard for his lack of recent flying experience, poor weather and the condition of his aircraft.

The complaint says air traffic control twice warned Bourn he was not cleared for takeoff, something confirmed by the Mercury News. Given that the passengers and pilot were co-workers going somewhere (for work?), the law makes it difficult to win a workers' compensation case. But that's not what is happening here, as Pitre told the Mercury News that part of the reason for the lawsuit is to get more information on just what happened on the day of the crash.

[Source: NBC Bay Area, Mercury News]