Sugar Grove family sues over plane crash
By Matt Hanley mhanley@stmedianetwork.com January 31, 2012 2:56PM
BRIAN POWERS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Workers remove debris fromt the front yard of a home on Old Oaks road Sunday after a plane crash Saturday night. Both men in the plane, Gary Bradford, 37, of Hollywood, Fla. and his passenger Drago Strahija, 32, of Lake Worth, Fla. were killed. 01/24/2010
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Updated: March 24, 2012 11:26PM
A Sugar Grove family has filed suit against the pilot’s widow and the owner of a plane that crashed on their property in 2010.
The Doyle family filed suit last month against Rita Bradford and the company she owned with her husband, Gary Bradford, who was killed on Jan. 23, 2010, when his plane crashed just yards from the Doyles’ home on Old Oaks Drive.
The crash occurred shortly after Bradford took off from Aurora Municipal Airport on Route 30 in Sugar Grove. Bradford and a passenger were killed in the crash.
According to the suit, Bradford, 37, of Hollywood, Fla., failed to inspect the Cessna Piper aircraft prior to takeoff, did not properly maintain the plane, and was not properly trained in how to land a plane during an emergency.
The plane took off at 6:52 p.m., headed to Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Denver, but crashed just north of the Doyle’s house at Route 47 and Old Oaks Drive.
While the plane did not hit the home, debris from the explosion hit the north side of the garage, starting a small fire. The house’s occupants — Cathy Doyle, her two teenage children and her mother — were evacuated safely. According to the suit, the family did suffer injuries, although the specifics were not included in the suit.
The aircraft, manufactured in 1974 and registered to ENS Corp., went down about 8 minutes after it left the Aurora Airport.
Bradford’s wife, Rita, is listed as the president of ENS Corp., a Florida IT firm specializing in network development. The suit is filed against Rita Bradford and ENS Corp.
Gary Bradford and his passenger, Draho Strahija, 32, also of Florida, were on a personal trip and had stayed overnight in Aurora. According to a final National Transportation Safety Board report on the crash, there was fog at the time of takeoff and visibility was a half-mile.
Gary Bradford seemed to be in hurry before the flight and did not perform a preflight inspection, the NTSB report said. He hit trees about two miles from the airport. There was no mechanical failure connected to the crash, the NTSB report said.
Bradford bought the plane three months before the crash. He previously had 98 hours of instrument flight and multi-engine experience, then received 52 hours of flight instruction on his plane in seven days.
The case is scheduled to be in court April 5.
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