CLEARWATER, Fla. — The husband of a woman who died after a plane crashed into a Clearwater mobile home park earlier this year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.
According to court documents, Robert Dixon is suing the estate of Jemin Patel and Control Data, Inc. in excess of $50,000 over the death of his wife, 54-year-old Mary Ellen Pender. Patel owned Control Data, a foreign profit corporation located in Brevard County.
A report conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed that Patel, the plane's pilot, could not find the airport he was supposed to land at before crashing into a mobile home park on Feb. 1.
The flight departed around 6:09 p.m. from Vero Beach Municipal Airport (VRB) in Vero Beach on a flight plan destined for Clearwater Air Park (CLW).
According to two people at CLW, 54-year-old Patel asked them to turn on the runway lights, which were already on from an airplane that had just landed.
After Patel asked them to turn the runway lights on a second time, they said the pilot-controlled runway lighting was changed to the highest intensity. Both then heard Patel announce he had a “fire.”
The flight began heading north of CLW before the pilot turned left and proceeded southeast. About two minutes later, Patel said, "I can’t see the other airport.”
Shortly after, he told the controller that he was "losing engine.”
The controller then asked Patel if he could see the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE), which was three miles ahead of his position. He also told Patel that runways 18 and 36 were available at that airport.
Patel, who was the only person on board, did not respond.
A pilot flying nearby reported seeing the plane, a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza V35B, descend at a 30 to 40-degree angle that he described as “like an uncontrolled descent.”
The plane then crashed into Bayside Waters, a mobile home park just south of Clearwater Mall. Pender and Patel both died in the crash, as well as 86-year-old Martha Parry of Long Island, New York.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
