The Lidle Legacy - More Harm to GA

I’d like to think that if Corey Lidle could still somehow talk to his wife, he’d tell her not to pursue her current lawsuit against Cirrus aircraft. In another saga in the sad “deep pockets” story of our legal system, she’s suing the aircraft manufacturer because the aircraft’s flight control system was faulty and wouldn’t allow the pilots to make tight turns. I’d like to believe that most juries would know enough about aircraft to understand the fallacy of that argument; but juries have shown in the past that truth and true justice has nothing to do with their awards. It’s the prime reason general aviation has so few new aircraft manufacturers and why general aviation aircraft cost so much. Product liability is the keyword all of us pilots have come to hate.

Every pilot knows that each aircraft he flies is different. Every aircraft has its own set of limitations, whether it’s in rate of turn, pitch rate, control responsiveness, gust response, stability, climb performance, gliding range, landing performance, etc. It’s up to the pilot to understand the limitations of his aircraft and his own limitations. I’ll wait and see what the NTSB accident report has to say; but from what I know right now, the accident will be almost completely attributable to pilot error. They flew the airplane into a situation it couldn’t get them out of.

Corey Lidle knew he was taking risks. He had to have known he was risking his life as well as the life insurance policy payout the Yankees had on him. He lost it all. Now, his estate is being sued for a million dollars in damages by a dentist who lived in the building damaged by the crash. I believe the lawsuit is a desperate move to exploit the only “deep pockets” the Lidle’s can go after, the Cirrus Aircraft corp. In the end, there’s only two things that can come out of this. It’s going to dirty Corey’s reputation as a pilot and it may put the company that built the very airplane he loved out of business.

That is a screwed up ending to what already is a very big tragedy.