3 More Suits Filed in Aspen Air Crash

The families of three people who died in a March 29 plane crash in Aspen, Colo., filed wrongful-death lawsuits in Los Angeles Wednesday against the owner and operator of the jet.

The parents of Elena Bernal and Yevgeny Kaplansky and the husband of Maria Ramona Cota sued Airborne Charter Inc., the company to which the jet was registered, and Avjet Corp., which housed the plane in a hangar at Burbank Airport.

Airborne Charter is run by Santa Monica-based Cinergi Pictures, founder and producer Andrew G. Vajna.

Pyotr and Zinaida Kaplansky, Alfonso and Maria Elena Bernal and Ernesto Cota also sued the estates of the plane’s pilots, Robert Frisbie and Peter Kowalczyk.

The Gulfstream jet, which was coming from Los Angeles, slammed into a hillside on March 29 as it approached Aspen’s airport. All 18 people aboard were killed.

The lawsuits seek unspecified damages, claiming the plane was flown “in a negligent, wanton, reckless, tortuous and unlawful manner.”

On July 6, the parents of victim Paul Pierre Standifer filed a wrongful-death suit against Airborne Charter, claiming the pilots attempted an instrument-only landing, which was prohibited during night landings at Aspen’s Sardy Field.

Federal aviation authorities have not yet issued a report on the cause of the crash.