SANTA PAULA : Settlement Agreed On in Pilot Death

The family of a student pilot killed in a fiery plane and helicopter crash that also injured actor Kirk Douglas at Santa Paula Airport in 1991 has agreed to accept $650,000 to settle a lawsuit, an attorney said Monday.

The insurance companies representing the airport, the state Department of Transportation, helicopter pilot Noel Blanc and the owner of the plane agreed to pay $650,000 in the settlement, said Jerry L. Steering, who represents the family of David Tomlinson.

But Steering said he is still awaiting the cash payment--at which time the case would be formally dismissed. The civil jury trial in Ventura County Superior Court Stunt had been scheduled to begin Monday.

Student airplane pilot Tomlinson, 18, and pilot Lee Manelski were killed Feb. 13, 1991, when a helicopter piloted by voice actor Blanc took off into the flight path of the plane.

Steering said the settlement was probably as much as the Tomlinson family could have hoped to receive from a jury.

“When you have a claim that’s relegated to purely emotional damages, the claim is a lot less,” he said.

The attorney declined to detail the specific amounts each party agreed to pay. “But the bulk of it was paid by Noel Blanc’s (insurance) carrier,” he said.

Blanc’s attorney did not return calls. But Arthur Wasserman, who represented the owner of the plane piloted by Manelski, called the settlement fair.

“We’re paying our policy limit,” Wasserman said. “It’s what we’ve been offering since Day 1.”

The Tomlinson family had previously rejected offers from all four parties that totaled $385,000, Steering said.

Manelski’s 15-year-old twin children accepted settlements in 1992 of $789,000 each for the loss of their father.