Widow awarded $10M in helicopter crash
Dec. 02--VICTORVILLE -- Just a little more than two years after a fatal helicopter crash claimed the lives of three people, a Victorville jury ruled the pilot's estate must pay a passenger's widow $10 million for the wrongful death of her husband, John Goble.
The verdict was handed down Wednesday afternoon after the jury found Joseph Pike was piloting the vintage helicopter on Nov. 7, 2009 and chose to fly between two electrical towers instead of over them, said Michael Danko, the attorney representing Goble's widow, Colleen Goble. The decision resulted in the helicopter striking the power lines and sending the vintage Piasecki PV-18 helicopter crashing to the ground, killing all three people aboard.
More than $2 million of the $10 million was for the wages John Goble would've earned since his death, according to Danko. The remaining money was a monetary figure affixed to Colleen Goble's loss of companionship when her husband died.
Pike was the owner of Classic Rotors Rare & Vintage Rotorcraft Museum in Adelanto and Goble was a vintage aircraft buff, according to Danko and court documents.
Goble -- whose work in the medical technology field had been featured on the National Geographic Channel and displayed at the Smithsonian -- had met Pike only one time before the deadly flight.
Pike, G oble and a third man, James Jantz, were reportedly on their way to Flabob Airport in Riverside to an aircraft and classic car show honoring veterans where the Piasecki had been booked to appear, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.
There is still a lawsuit pending against the Pike estate filed by the Jantz family. They also filed a lawsuit against Goble's e s t at e a n d t h e L o s Angeles Department of Water and Power, which maintain the electrical towers.
Beatriz E. Valenzuela may be
reached at (760) 951-6276 or at
Copyright 2011 - Daily Press, Victorville, Calif.