Injured After Plane Slid From Runway, Caught Fire

A Colorado man is suing two Aspen aviation businesses, as well as two pilots, for injuries he says he received after the private jet he was a passenger in slid off the runway after attempting to land at Eagle County airport last July.

The Lear 35 (file photo of type, right) -- which, according to the lawsuit, was commissioned as an air ambulance for unspecified reasons by plaintiff Mark Hudgens -- caught fire after it slid from the runway. Hudgen's lawyer, Clay Robbins, says the accident left his client bedridden for months with spinal cord injuries, according to The Aspen Times.

The lawsuit claims Hudgens, accompanied on the trip by a nurse, "was left crippled in the burning wreckage... while the pilot and co-pilot abandoned him and ran from the wreckage for their own safety" -- an assertion Mark Levine, one of the pilots named in the suit, disputes.

"Both pilots were not the first people out of the airplane," he said. "After the accident, the main cabin door was opened by the co-pilot, and he assisted the two passengers out of the airplane. I was actually the last one out of the airplane."

Levine also maintains it was not an air ambulance flight, but instead a charter trip. "We're not licensed to be an air ambulance carrier," he said.

Robbins says he is merely recounting his client's recollection of events, and that the results of the accident are difficult to dispute. The lawsuit alleges Hudgens injured his spinal cord, ribs, chest and other internal organs in the accident.

Co-pilot Gilbert Wright is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, as are charter jet operation Aspen Aviation and Aspen Base Operations -- which have both since been purchased by the Trajen FBO network.

Trajen did not assume any liabilities from either company in the purchase, according to Sardy Field FBO manager Chad Farischon. Cliff Runge, one of the owners of Aspen Base Operations when it was sold and the founder of Aspen Aviation, was not available to comment.

While the NTSB investigation into the cause of the accident is not yet complete, pilot Levine believes a mechanical discrepancy was the cause of the mishap, "based on what the airplane did."

Robbins speculated the airplane "was coming in too fast and landed too hard," an assertion backed by a witness report who told another area newspaper he saw the Lear come in to land aT Eagle "really fast." The witness also said two people were taken from the wreckage on stretchers.

Hudgens, who the lawyer asserts was able to walk before the accident, was unable "to walk for a good period of time after the accident," said Robbins. "He was bedridden. It's my understanding that he has just recently started being able to get up and walk around."

The lawsuit requests a jury trial to determine if Hudgens is entitled to the unspecified amount for damages and injury. His medical bills have exceeded $60,000 so far, according to the lawsuit.

FMI: Read The NTSB Preliminary Report