COUNTYWIDE : Settlement Reached in Midair Collision

The owner of a stunt plane involved in a fatal midair collision at Santa Paula Airport in 1991 has agreed to pay $15,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the parents of a student pilot who was killed.

Robert Keenan offered to pay the money because contesting the lawsuit would have been much more expensive than settling, his attorney, Richard T. Miller, said in court documents.

By law, Keenan could not have been ordered to pay more than $15,000 even if the case had gone to trial, Miller said, but attorney fees could have driven up his ultimate costs.

Keenan was the owner of the Pitts S2A stunt plane that collided with a helicopter piloted by cartoon voice artist Noel Blanc while the two aircraft were taking off at the airport on Feb. 13, 1991. Actor Kirk Douglas was a passenger in the helicopter.

Flying the stunt plane was veteran Santa Paula pilot Lee Manelski, 46. He was killed during the crash, along with his student pilot, David Tomlinson, 18, of Thousand Oaks.

Tomlinson’s parents, A. Scott and Harriet Tomlinson, filed a lawsuit in October, 1991, against Blanc, Douglas, Manelski’s estate, Keenan and several agencies. The lawsuit contends that the crash occurred because both aircraft were operated in violation of federal and local rules and customs.

Federal investigators concluded that Blanc was responsible for the collision.

In court documents, Miller said it was undisputed that the stunt plane had been inspected annually and that there were no maintenance problems at the time of the crash.

Manelski had leased the airplane from Keenan since 1982, the documents state. Miller questioned whether Keenan bore any responsibility for the collision, but said his client was “willing to have judgment against him rather than incur attorney fees and costs, which are likely to exceed his maximum liability of $15,000.”