Appeals court revives lawsuit from Gray’s Creek Airport plane crash that injured 4 people

Three years ago, investigators said, a passenger in a small plane caused it to crash on takeoff during an aviation career day at the Gray’s Creek Airport, severely injuring himself, two other passengers and the pilot — who was a flight instructor showing the passengers how to fly.

The crash, which was about a 15-minute drive south of Fayetteville, led to a lawsuit by the passenger, Justin Emmanuel Elliott of Cumberland County. He sued flight school and aircraft maintenance company Cape Fear Aviation, which operated the plane, and Educational Data Systems Inc., a federal workforce contractor involved with the career day. The N.C. Court of Appeals on Tuesday issued a ruling that says Elliott may proceed with his lawsuit, overturning a lower court judge who dismissed it.

Elliot is seeking compensation for his injuries and medical expenses, plus says he continues to suffer aftereffects and has been disabled.

The lawsuit was dismissed in Cumberland County Superior Court in January 2022. Judge Jack Hooks said Elliott carries some blame for the crash, so he isn’t allowed to get compensation. Elliott appealed, and the appeals court ruling issued Tuesday morning said Hooks was wrong to dismiss the case.

The ruling by a three-judge panel said a jury should decide the degree of Elliott’s responsibility in the crash. It sent the case back to Cumberland County for more consideration.

The key question to resolve: Since Elliott put his hands on the controls at the direction of flight instructor Jake Parsons, does responsibility for the crash lay with Elliott or Parsons — or both?

Under North Carolina law, if two people are involved in a crash or other incident that causes death, injury or damage neither can collect compensation from the other, even if one is 99% responsible and the other is only 1% responsible. This is a legal concept called contributory negligence.

Photos:4 taken to hospital after plane crashes in Gray’s Creek

Passengers got to handle controls during ‘discovery flights’

The aviation career day was presented by the Cumberland County Workforce Development Board, Fayetteville Technical Community College, and Cape Fear Aviation on Feb. 17, 2020, court documents say. Elliott and fellow passengers Vanessa Leal and Dominique Northcutt were clients of the NC Works Career Center in Fayetteville.

They and others participated in activities at the airport to learn more about job opportunities in aviation, the lawsuit says. The flight was a “discovery flight,” an introductory flight lesson to provide participants a chance to fly in a plane and decide if they are interested in aviation, the ruling says.

“In a discovery flight, a pilot may allow a passenger to feel the controls with their hands and feet, but passengers do not manipulate the controls themselves,” the ruling says.

The ruling says Elliott “did not want to participate in the discovery flight initially, but felt pressured into it by flight instructors and other participants.” He sat in one of the two front seats, and both seats were equipped with the aircraft’s controls.

Parsons asked Elliott to taxi the Cessna 172M to the runway, the ruling says, and Elliott reluctantly agreed to do it. Then Parsons took control of the plane for takeoff, it says.

According to a crash investigation report by the National Transportation Safety Board, Elliott said Parsons told him, as the plane was moving down the runway, to move the plane’s control yoke to take off, and to “rotate the plane slowly.”

More:Students hurt during career day flight in Gray's Creek

Learn more:NTSB releases preliminary report on Gray’s Creek plane crash

The report and court documents say Elliott pulled back too far on the yoke. This caused the plane to pitch up too steeply as it was taking off. Alarms started going off as the plane tilted back toward a vertical position, court documents say.

Parsons yelled for Elliott to let go of the controls, the ruling says, but Elliott said later he couldn’t right away.

The plane stalled — it lost the aerodynamic lifting force needed to fly — and fell to the ground.

The ruling says Elliott suffered two broken ankles, a cracked sternum, lacerations to the head and injuries to his back. Parsons had broken bones in his face, back, ankle and collarbone, plus injuries to his kidneys and lungs. The pilot said he has no memory of the flight, the ruling says.

Leal and Northcutt were also hurt — Northcutt had brain damage and was in a coma for months, news reports have said.

Long recovery:Gray’s Creek plane crash victim remained in coma three months later.

Tuesday’s Court of Appeals ruling was written by Judge Julee Flood. Judges Chris Dillon and Hunter Murphy concurred.

Senior North Carolina reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Court says plane crash lawsuit against Cape Fear Aviation can proceed