Plane Crash Victim's Family Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Greg Owen

Attorney

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The family of a Cerritos man killed in a plane crash one year ago has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the plane’s owner and the estates of the deceased pilots.

The crash occurred between two small planes on January 20, 2008 around one mile from Corona Municipal Airport. Scott Gayle Lawrence, 55, and Paul Carlson, 73, both of Cerritos were in one plane. In the other plane were Brandon William Johnson, 24, of Costa Mesa, and Anthony Joel Guzman, 21, of Hesperia.

A third victim, Earl Smiddy, 58, of Moreno Valley, was killed by falling debris from the crash.

The lawsuit was filed on Friday by Scott Lawrence’s ex-wife.

According to a preliminary crash report from the National Transportation Safety Board, both planes were flying under “visual flight rules”, and were responsible to both see and avoid other traffic. It appears that the collision occurred while both were approaching the airport and neither appeared to take any action to avoid the collision. Neither pilots had filed a flight plan.

An attorney for Brandon Johnson’s mother filed a claim last year against the city alleging that the airport should have had a control tower. The Corona airport is a general aviation airport, a classification which does not require a tower. Corona city officials reviewed airport safety after the crash and recommended minor changes, and they asked the Federal Aviation Administration to study whether a tower is needed. The 2008 lawsuit was later thrown out due to failure to file within six months of the crash.