Inhofe’s family suing plane manufacturers

TULSA, Okla. (AP) – The family of a U.S. senator’s son who was killed in a plane crash is suing the aircraft’s manufacturers.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Tulsa County District Court claims the November 2013 crash that killed 51-year-old Perry Dyson Inhofe the Second, was due to manufacturers not providing proper maintenance on the plane’s engine and parts.

Inhofe – a licensed pilot, flight instructor and Tulsa physician – was the son of U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe. He died after the twin-engine aircraft he was flying crashed about 5 miles north of the Tulsa International Airport runway and caught fire.

The suit, which asks for at least $75,000 in damages, names Honeywell International Inc., Standard Aero, Standard Aero (Alliance) Inc. and International Jet Service Corp. as defendants, the Tulsa World reports.

Authorities say Inhofe was conducting his first solo flight in the Mitsubishi MU-2 plane from Salina, Kansas, to Tulsa when he overshot the airport’s runway.