Widow Receives $1 Million Settlement in Plane Crash Lawsuit

By Daniel Hawn

Published on January 15, 2008

Carole W. Green, the widow of Graham Greene III, filed suit in December 2006 against the estate of Rick Potter, a real estate developer who was piloting the Lancair Columbia LC-41 when it crashed near Stafford Regional Airport on the night of Feb. 22, 2006. Potter, Greene's husband, and the two other men aboard the plane – Michael Guy Pappas and Albert "Buck" Jacoby – all perished in the crash.

The lawsuit accuses Potter of failing to obtain necessary weather information prior to taking off from an airport in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The men had attended a Wake Forest University basketball game in the city and were heading back to Shannon Airport in Spotsylvania County. Because of Potter's mistake, the lawsuit states, he was forced to abruptly divert the plane's course and attempt a landing at Stafford Regional Airport.

According to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board, the plane "was destroyed when it impacted trees and terrain" near the airport's landing strip. The agency said the accident was most likely due to "the pilot's failure to execute the published missed approach."

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