Tom Cruise ‘partially to blame’ for on-set plane crash that left two American Made crew members dead, lawsuit claims
Pilots Alan Purwin and Carlos Berl were killed in 2015 when their plane went down in the mountains during filming
THE families of two pilots who died in a plane crash on the set of American Made in Colombia claim Tom Cruise is partially to blame for the fatal accident.
Alan Purwin, 51, and Carlos Berl, 58, were killed in 2015 when their twin-engine Piper Smith Aerostar 600 went down in the mountains during filming.
A third crew member, Jimmy Lee Garland, was left without feeling in the lower half of his body.
According to new court documents obtained by , the estates of Purwin and Berl claim Cruise and director Doug Liman’s desire to film a “high-risk, action-packed motion picture” contributed to the circumstances that led to the accident.
The documents state: “The demands of filming in Colombia, together with Cruise’s and director Doug Liman’s enthusiasm for multiple takes of lavish flying sequences, added hours to every filming day and added days to the schedule."
The Hollywood actor and Liman are not named as defendants in the lawsuit but the families of the victims say the pair were “negligent” by allowing the flight to take off.
Purwin and Berl’s families are both suing production companies Imagine Entertainment, Cross Creek Pictures and Vendian Entertainment for wrongful death and damages.
They claim the producers ignored safety procedures before the flight in order to save time and money.
Court documents stated: “Lapses in planning, coordinating, scheduling, and flight safety that were the Defendants’ responsibility resulted in an unqualified and unprepared pilot being pressed into service for a dangerous flight in a vintage aircraft across an unfamiliar mountain pass in bad weather."
The lawsuit also claims an unnamed executive producer allegedly told an insurance company: “DL [Director Liman] and TC [Cruise] [are] adding entire scenes and aerial shots on the fly.
"Had to bring in Uni Safety to help wrangle them. In the last 48 hours this has become the most insane s**t I’ve ever dealt with."
American Made is about a former Trans World Airlines pilot called Barry Seal, who is recruited by the CIA to stay out of jail, after playing them and Mexican cartels off against each other in the 80s.
