Fault Still Disputed in Fatal Air Collision : Aviation: A flurry of lawsuits has been lodged since the February, 1991, accident at Santa Paula Airport. Investigators recently laid all blame on the surviving helicopter pilot.

One year after the fatal collision of a helicopter and a stunt plane at Santa Paula Airport, the survivors and the estates of the two dead aviators are still arguing over who was at fault.

Federal Aviation Administration inspectors have charged that the helicopter’s pilot, cartoon voice artist Noel Blanc, caused the crash when he took off into the path of a stunt plane flown by veteran Santa Paula pilot Lee Manelski, 46, and his student, David Tomlinson, 18, of Thousand Oaks.

Manelski and Tomlinson were killed when their Pitts S2A stunt plane smashed into the rotor of the rising Bell JetRanger on Feb. 13, 1991. Blanc and his passengers, actor Kirk Douglas and a Beverly Hills police officer, Michael Carra, were injured.

Earlier this month, Blanc and Carra filed the two most recent lawsuits in a flurry of court actions that have been lodged in Ventura County Superior Court since the Feb. 13, 1991, crash.

In the suits, Blanc and Carra accuse Manelski and Tomlinson of violating aviation laws in the crash. They also allege that the Santa Paula Airport Assn., Ventura County and the state negligently allowed the crash to happen.

Douglas filed a similar civil claim in August against the city of Santa Paula, Ventura County and the state, but so far has not filed a lawsuit in the matter. His claim alleged that the airport’s runway and helicopter pad are too close together and that the public agencies are responsible for regulating and designing the airport.

The lawsuits allege that the crash was caused partly by the airport’s lack of instructions for departing aircraft. The Santa Paula Airport, a general aviation field on the southern edge of Santa Paula, has neither a tower nor air-traffic controllers.

The airport’s runway is bounded on the southeast by mountains and the northwest by California 126. Aircraft take off and land along that corridor on an honor system, following separate, prearranged flight paths.

Airport officials have said that until the 1991 crash, there had been eight fatalities since the airport opened in 1930, which they considered a low number.

Blanc, son of famed “Looney Tunes” cartoon voice artist Mel Blanc, must face charges in a National Transportation Safety Board hearing next month that he violated three federal aviation regulations in the crash, said FAA spokesman Fred O’Donnell.

Investigators said initially that Manelski had the right of way but that both pilots had failed in their duty to see and avoid each other.

Recently, however, the investigators laid all blame for the crash on Blanc.

The crash occurred because Blanc’s chopper lifted off directly into the path of Manelski’s stunt plane, O’Donnell said. Manelski was not at fault, he said.

The FAA filed an order Aug. 23 revoking Blanc’s license on charges that he failed to see and avoid other aircraft, that he operated his craft in a careless manner so as to endanger the life or property of another, and that he operated his craft so close to another craft as to risk a collision.

Blanc appealed the charges to the NTSB, which called the hearing for March 17 through 19 and postponed the 180-day license revocation until an administrative law judge rules whether Blanc broke federal law.

If the judge rules against him, the revocation would take effect, O’Donnell said.

FAA records show that Blanc had his commercial pilot’s license suspended for 30 days in 1985 after the agency cited him for three violations of federal flight laws. Officials said the 1985 citations involved operation of an aircraft too low to make a safe emergency landing, flying a helicopter at an altitude unsafe to people or property on the ground, and careless or reckless operation of an aircraft.

Meanwhile, Blanc’s insurance company has agreed to pay damages to Manelski’s 14-year-old twins, John and Jill Manelski. Manelski’s wife, Joy Goodman, petitioned Superior Court for the settlement of a lawsuit that she filed in November against Blanc and Douglas.

On Feb. 4, Judge Burt Henson approved a settlement, under which AIG Aviation Insurance Services agreed to pay a total of $789,800 to the children over the next 15 years, according to court documents.

But none of the claims against Douglas or the government agencies have been settled.

A flurry of accusations and denials also has been filed since Tomlinson’s parents lodged a lawsuit in Superior Court on Oct. 24 against Blanc, Douglas, the airport and the state and county agencies that oversee it.

A. Scott Tomlinson and Harriet Tomlinson alleged that all the defendants either caused or contributed to their son’s death.

Among the denials filed so far, the Santa Paula Airport Assn. alleged that Tomlinson and other parties caused the crash; Carra and Blanc alleged that Tomlinson and Manelski caused it; the city of Santa Paula alleged that Manelski and Tomlinson knowingly exposed himself to such dangers by piloting an airplane; and the state of California blamed the pilots of both craft for negligence in the crash.