Lawsuit Claims Plane that Crashed was 'Negligently Assembled'

A lawsuit against the manufacturer of a small plane that crashed in Palos Hills in 2014 alleges the plane was ”negligently designed, manufactured and assembled.”

The Beechcraft Baron crashed at 10:40 p.m. on Oct. 12, 2014, in the 10100 block of South 86th Court, killing neurosurgeon Tausif Ur Rehman, pulmonologist Ali A. Kanchwala, and Kanchwala’s wife, Maria Javaid, an interventional cardiologist.

Amina Rehman and Farahnaz Bandukwala have filed suit against Beechcraft Corporation, Honeywell International, and Lloyd Hetrick on behalf of Rehman and Kanchwala, reports the Chicago Sun-Times, alleging the plane had a faulty autopilot and artificial horizon.

The NTSB reported that the plane appeared to have fallen from the sky in a “near-vertical attitude”—close to a nose-dive, just five minutes after it had taken off from Midway Airport, en route to Kansas.

“There was no distress call,” said National Transportation Safety Board Investigator John Brannen during a press conference after the crash. “It simply dropped off the radar.”

The 10-suit lawsuit also claims the plane’s maintenance manual, pilot operating handbook, and illustrated parts catalog ”did not provide instruction on the proper maintenance of the autopilot and artificial horizon.”

The suit seeks an unspecified amount of damages.