Three survivors and two widows of the victims of the crash of a Cessna 404C Titan at Jandakot Airport in 2003 have won the right to sue an engineer and the pilot of the aircraft for negligence over the crash, the WA Supreme Court ruled on November 11.
Justice Michael Murray ruled that the plantiffs, passengers Malcolm Cifuentes, Michael Knubley and Ozan Perincek, and the widows of victims Steven Warriner and Harry Protoolis, laid blame with pilot Alec Penberthy, the aircraft’s operator Fugro Spatial Solutions, and engineer Aaron Barclay.
During the two week trial, which took place during August, it was claimed that Barclay used the wrong alloy when replacing a part in one of the aircraft’s engines, leading to its failure shortly after takeoff on August 11 2003, while Penberthy was accused of not following proper procedure in turning the aircraft after the engine failure.
The court ruling has opened the way for the plaintiffs to sue for potentially millions of dollars in a damages allocation trial which will take place in the District Court.
