Bob Herendeen

On Wednesday, January 31, 1996 12:00:00 AM UTC-8, Sid Lloyd wrote:
Michael Zenner wrote:

I heard something that I thought was a little shocking, and figured I
could find out from someone here about the straight scoop...

Did Bob Herendeen die? If so, can someone e-mail me the story?

I'm hoping not to be mourning...


Sad but true. Went in in his Eagle while taking pictures of his
house. Pilot error due to inattention. More than a year ago. He
is sorely missed in aviation and especially within the Glassair
community. Stoddard-Hamilton has created a special Bob Herendeen
award that Bob's widow presented this year. He was a great guy and
flew one heck of an airshow in his Glassair.

As a side note- a contractor was building a house near the crash. He
was at a convenience store and someone told him that a plane had
crashed near the house and had started a fire. As he raced across
town to the site, he lost control of his pickup, jumped the curb
and hit and killed a guy who was putting up a sign in his front yard.
Who did the lawyers sue? The estate of Bob of course. Under the
logic that the contractor was going to the rescue of the pilot and
under California law, someone who causes an accident can be held
liable for injuries and damages incurred by people coming to their
aid- they should have foreseen this could have happened and not
gotten in an accident (so what IS the definition of accident???)

The judge threw it out not because it was stupid, but because
the contractor was racing to the site 20 minutes after the accident
and therefore couldn't have been going to the pilot's aid.

sigh...
--
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Sid Lloyd
GlaStar & Cozy IV builder

homepage: http://rampages.onramp.net/~sidl/

I just now ( 20 years late ) stumbled on this thread and thought I would straighten out a lot of miss information. Bob died on January 22, 1994 while piloting my Christen Eagle airplane. He was taking pictures at the request of a local Ramona California realtor. His Pitts Special airplane is now owned by a airline pilot who is also a aerobatic competitor and lives in west central Illinois. Bob's Glasair III is in South Africa. Regarding the law suit after Bob died. His estate was sued by the widow of the man killed by the building contractor who was racing to the crash site. However the contractor was not racing to Bob's aid rather he was racing to the site to save the house, about 300 ft from the crash, that he (contractor) had just finished building but not yet lived in by the owners. The judge found that under law Bob did not owe the unfortunate deceased man a debt of protection since the time, 20 minutes, and the distance between the two accidents about 1 1/2 miles was too great. The deceased man's widow did sue the contractor and got approximately $100,000 from the auto insurance. Interesting to note that the Christian Eagle that Bob 'borrowed" from wife (me) carried a substantial amount of liability insurance due to the fact that it was used in air shows. This particular insurance company refused to pay anything and said that actually the plane wasn't covered "in this particular situation". A lawyer was hired to go after the insurance company to force them to provide council thoughtout the year and half until the whole thing was thrown out of court. Further interesting is that while we pay for liability insurance the companies don't really want to loose their money.

Jackie, I was so glad to read your response to clarify the miss information printed on this thread about Bob's death. I haven't seen you in years, but think of you often. I still attend OSH every year with my Eagle...I miss watching Bob fly there. I hope you're well. Lynn OJala Eagle 13 LD