Tower Company Sues Dead Pilot’s Family

The family of a Quebec man who died when his single-engine plane crashed into a 1,000-foot-high telecommunications tower in dense fog in 2001 is being sued for $2.5 million by the tower’s owner, CTV News reported Saturday. The wreck remained tangled in the tower for several days, and the tower was destroyed with dynamite to retrieve the airplane and the pilot’s body. The tower is owned by a U.S. company, SpectraSite, which wants more than $2.5 million from the family to cover the costs of the tower’s destruction, the cost to rebuild, and lost revenue. The company says the pilot was at fault for flying in fog, CTV News said. The pilot’s widow and children say they don’t have that much money. The family may have to declare bankruptcy to avert a court battle. “It’s very harsh,” one man said in French to CTV. “Companies have to be poor to sue a family that has already lost so much.” In a recent first-quarter financial report, SpectraSite reported its total assets at about $1.5 billion.