Kathryn Purwin, widow of the late pilot Alan Purwin, recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Tom Cruise's 'Mena' movie producers. The lawsuit alleged that the production companies were responsible for allowing an inexperienced pilot to man the plane that eventually crashed in the Andes Mountains during the final day of principal photography.
According to TMZ, Purwin was killed along with Columbian pilot Carlos Berl when their plane crashed in the Andes Mountains of Columbia on September 11, 2015. A third companion, Jimmy Lee Garland, survived but sustained serious injuries. The crash was attributed to poor weather conditions after take-off from the town of Santa Fe de Antoquia.
The complaint filed by Purwin's widow and their two children on April 15 stated, "Defendants knew that the Accident Aircraft would be flown over rugged, mountainous terrain and in the Republic of Colombia, and yet failed to ensure that Carlos Berl was competent, qualified, rested and sufficiently informed for the flight."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit named production companies Vendian Entertainment, Cross Creek Pictures, Imagine Entertainment, Vendian Entertainment and Quadrant Pictures as defendants. In addition, Berl's estate was also sued.
Purwin did stunt work on numerous blockbuster films during his career including 1998's 'Armageddon', 2007's 'Transformers' and 2015's 'Furious 7', according to The Daily Mail. Last year, he worked closely with Cruise on 'Mena'. He founded West Coast Helicopters in 1987 and later merged it with a Los Angeles-based company he purchased in 1998. The company, Helinet Technologies, provides aerial surveillance technology to law enforcement.
'Mena' is an upcoming biographical drama and thriller film starring Tom Cruise as Barry Seal, a TWA pilot recruited by the CIA to head a major covert operation to capture the cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar.
It was reported that Cruise, who is also a trained pilot, resumed filming following the movie's suspension after the plane crash. The film, directed by Doug Liman, is scheduled to be released on January 6, 2017.
