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Arts & EntertainmentTom Cruise

Why Pilots’ Families Are Blaming Tom Cruise for a Deadly Movie Set Crash

By
Emily Price
Emily Price
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By
Emily Price
Emily Price
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September 21, 2017, 2:50 PM ET

The families of two pilots who died in a plane crash during the filming of American Made are blaming Tom Cruise, among others, for the pilot’s deaths.

People reports that Cruise and director Doug Liman wanted a “high-risk, action-packed motion picture,” and “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.”

Worth noting, the families of the deceased pilots are also suing each other for the crash, and one family is suing the family of another pilot who was injured in the incident but survived (he no longer has feeling in his lower body).

Allegedly, additional scenes were added to the film on the fly, and the pilots involved didn’t have the proper training to handle all the additional scenes, some of which were being shot in dangerous weather.

Neither Cruise or Liman are named as defendants in the suit, which nonetheless describes them as “negligent.” The suite also states that Cruise is an experienced enough pilot that he should have flown the plane that crashed.

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