Last Updated on March 6, 2022 by CCAR Staff
LOS ANGELES — The widow and daughter of a passenger who was killed in a small plane crash near Newhall in 2020 are suing the estate of the pilot and the estate’s representative.
Gina Solis brought the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit on behalf of herself and her 10-year-old daughter on Thursday against the estate of John Russell Calvert and the estate’s representative, Gregory Michael Calvert. The suit alleges negligence and both strict and negligent products liability.
The Solises are the wife and daughter of the late 36-year-old Kevin Solis of Fontana, who was the only passenger aboard the plane flown by the 77-year-old Calvert, a Valencia resident.
Calvert “negligently, carelessly, recklessly, unskillfully … maintained, operated, controlled and flew (the plane) so as to proximately cause the (aircraft) to crash thereby causing the death of Kevin Solis,” the suit states.
Solis was unaware of any defects in the plane before the crash, the suit states.
A representative for the Calvert estate could not immediately be reached.
The crash occurred near the Sunshine Canyon Landfill, northwest of Sylmar, at about 1:50 p.m. March 13, 2020. The plane, a single-engine Mooney M20K, left Southwest Oregon Regional Airport in North Bend, Oregon, earlier that day and vanished from radar while inbound to Van Nuys Airport. A witness working at the landfill reported hearing engine problem sounds from the aircraft and the wreckage was later found on a hill near the landfill. Both the pilot and passenger were killed.
