Wrongful Death Suit Filed Over Plane Crash During Filming Of Cruise Movie

A wrongful death claim has been filed by the family of a crew member on the upcoming film Mena after the airplane that they were flying hit bad weather in Columbia and crashed in the mountains. Two were killed and a third was injured in the crash, and a lawsuit is now underway to compensate the victims and their families.

The Crash

The movie Mena, set to debut in January of 2017, is a film about an American pilot, working for the late drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. It will star Tom Cruise and get distributed by Universal Pictures.

While much of the filming has been done in and around Atlanta, some of it was done in Columbia. During the last day of principal photography – the crucial part of the movie making process that involves the actors being on set, with cameras rolling and live action – a small aircraft flown by the local pilot Carlos Berl hit bad weather near the town of Santa Fe de Antioquia. Unable to reach the airport in Medellin, it crashed in the rugged, mountainous terrain of Columbia.

Alan Purwin, a film pilot, died in the crash, and another American pilot, Jimmy Lee Garland, was severely injured. Purwin worked on other major motion pictures, including Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Suing on behalf of her late husband, the widow of Alan Purwin has filed a lawsuit for wrongful death against the production companies behind the film, as well as Carlos Berl’s estate.

Claiming that the production companies knew that the airplane would be flying over difficult terrain, they failed to make sure that Berl was adequately qualified to make the journey, and that this resulted in her husband’s death.

Additionally, the complaint alleges that Berl was not a member of the cast or the crew. His role as pilot in the plane that went down would therefore violate filming policies that require a closed set. This detail could complicate the proceedings, as it would raise the question of whether the production companies in charge of the filming knew or should have known that Berl was on the set or not.

Baltimore and Washington D.C. Personal Injury Attorneys

No matter what your line of work is, there are always potentially dangerous situations that can arise that lead to serious injuries. Even if they are not as life threatening as a plane crash, it can be unfair to expect you to pay for your recovery when you were not the cause of the injury in the first place. Personal injury attorneys like those at Gilman & Bedigian fight for you in court to get you the compensation that you deserve. Contact our law office at (800) 529-6162 or contact us online.