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Lawsuits rage over pilot deaths on Tom Cruise movie accused of 'cutting corners'

Tragedy... Carlos Berl (left) crashed plane in Colombia while filming Tom Cruise movie American Made - Credit: THR
Tragedy… Carlos Berl (left) crashed plane in Colombia while filming Tom Cruise movie American Made – Credit: THR

Families of two pilots who died in a plane crash during the production of forthcoming Tom Cruise movie ‘American Made’ are locked in a legal battle over who is to blame.

And according to The Hollywood Reporter, there are now question marks over whether corners were cut on the production, and whether the pilot should have been flying on the day their light aircraft crashed.

51-year-old Alan Purwin, a veteran of Hollywood helicopter stunts, and 58-year-old Carlos Berl, also an experienced pilot, perished when the Piper Smith Aerostar 600 Berl was flying crashed into a hillside near the border of Colombia and Panama while on a journey back to the movie’s base in Medellin.

Passenger Jimmy Lee Garland, 55 and also a pilot, survived but now has no feeling in his lower body after sustaining horrific injuries in the crash.

The families of Purwin and Berl are suing each other and the movie’s producers Imagine Entertainment, Vendian Entertainment and Cross Creek Pictures for wrongful death, while Berl’s family are also suing Garland, with allegations of negligence.

Purwin’s family alleges that the producers of the movie ‘failed to ensure that Carlos Berl was competent, qualified, rested and sufficiently informed for the flight’.

The Berl family claims that he was ‘hurried on’ to pilot the plane in order to prevent filming delays, despite having asked for additional training to fly it.

(Credit: Reuters)
(Credit: Reuters)

Meanwhile, the insurance company which had indemnified the movie has filed a suit disclaiming its responsibility to pay out a $50 million policy, alleging the flight – and many others taken during the production – were illegal.

There are also allegations that the process of obtaining the right licenses and training for the pilots was flawed, and that Purwin was known to the Federal Aviation Administration because of a helicopter crash in 1996 which killed his business partner and resulted in him being issued restrictions on flying certain aircraft.

Three fellow Hollywood aviation colleagues told THR that Purwin was in a ‘death pool’ among other pilots, implying he was likely to die in an air crash, and that he was known to be reckless.

Another called him ‘frankly, a terrible pilot, and it was his incompetence that killed his partner’ back in 1996.

In addition, the plane that was being flown is also said to have a poor safety record, many pilots referring to it as ‘the widow maker’ or the ‘death star’, advising against flying it without the proper training having been undertaken.

A rep for the Berl family said: “The impact of the loss of their father and only real parent simply cannot be overstated.

(Credit: Deadline)
(Credit: Deadline)

“We hope to put a dent in the pocketbook of the motion picture industry. We want the industry to understand and practice one concept, which the Berl family would expect to be put ahead of all other considerations in the making of a film, namely, safety before profits at all times.”

Others involved in the production told THR that the crew of the plane were ‘rushing’ to get back to the production base in Medellin to avoid delays to the movie, despite bad flying conditions.

Andres Berl, the younger brother of Carlos Berl, said that ‘safety was compromised’ and that ‘Hollywood cut corners’.

One pilot added: “You have to have experience to fly in Colombia. You cannot fly here like you fly in Miami, where there’s not a mountain anywhere. If you fly in South America, you have to be very trained in the conditions.

“I fly there regularly, and I would have stayed on the ground that day.”

Helmed by Doug Liman, the movie stars Cruise as former airline pilot Barry Seal, who became a drug smuggler for the Colombian cartels – notably Pablo Escobar – in the 80s, and agreed to become an informant to the DEA to avoid jail.

It’s due out in September.

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