Plane Vanished On Flight From Catalina Island To Van Nuys, CA

The family of a 50-year-old student pilot in California who disappeared along with his flight instructor and the Cessna 172 they were flying in 2016 has sued the flight school who employed the instructor.

The Press Telegram newspaper reports that, according to the 11 page filing, the family of Edmond Haronian is holding Encore Flight Academy of Van Nuys responsible for Haronian's presumed death. They contend that the school should not have hired flight instructor Jason Glazier because he was known to fly recklessly and had a criminal record.

The two had flown from Van Nuys to Catalina Island on May 28, 2016. Haronian posted a photo of himself on Facebook (shown above) just before they began the return trip to the mainland. But the plane vanished, along with the two occupants, and an extensive search by the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies failed to ever locate the wreckage of the airplane or the bodies of the two men on board.

Haronian has been declared legally dead, but Glazier has not and is still considered "missing" according to Kevin Boyle, an attorney representing the family members who brought the suit.

The lawsuit states that the transponder of the plane was inactivated, so there is no altitude information for the plane. But radar data shows the plane only making it as far as five miles from north of Avalon three minutes into the flight before disappearing from radar. There was an oil slick seen in the water at that location, according to court documents.

Along with the flight school, the suit names Libra Air, which is the registered owner of the airplane.

(Image from Facebook)

FMI: Original Report