Posted on 07/17/2006 1:31:52 PM PDT by OldCorps
An attorney specializing in suits related to aviation disasters has died after crashing his vintage plane at the Oregon International Airshow. Robert Guilford, 73, crashed his plane shortly after taking off Sunday at the airshow, the Portland (Ore.) Oregonian reported Monday. Guilford, a former federal prosecutor, was a licensed pilot and vintage airplane expert who worked at California law firm Baum Hedlund, which handles serious personal injury and wrongful death cases related to commercial transportation accidents, the Oregonian reported. The law firm was employed in the cases of more than 55 airline crashes, including the 1996 wreck of TWA Flight 800 near East Moriches N.Y., and the crash of an Egypt Air flight near Nantucket, Mass., in 1999.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
"I think it's sad he died in the crash and that he crashed in a residential neighborhood."
I, too, think it is sad that he crashed in a residential neighborhood.
ping
Well, I was actually impressed that he had a working knowledge about aviation. That actually gave me pause that some of the suits he filed might be based in truth. Not a big fan of lawyers here but I found that interesting.
He only had the plane there on static display and was flying home to Santa Monica.
He lost the engine in a single engine jet.
He was a very competant pilot and instructor plus owning many very expensive war birds and ran the museum at Santa Monica which is quite impressive.
At least the large fees that he earned were put back into avaition for not only his enjoyment but that of a lot of people.
As far as that aircraft, he was the only certified instructor for it.
He also raced an unlimited class bird in the Reno Air Races.
Hmmmmmm ... seven months as a FReeper. Five more months of FReep Appenticeship and you'll be as arrogant and less heart felt as the rest of us by replying something like, "Oh well ... at that age, he'd start being a drain on our health care dollars anyway!"
One lawyer down. 529,189 to go!
(The US Depatment of Labor says there are 529,190 lawyers working in the USA)
Robert E. Guilford
July 17, 2006
Photo and law firm notice at:
http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/
Statement by Baum Hedlund concerning Robert E. Guilford
Our partner and dear friend, Robert E. Guilford, died on July 16, 2006 in a plane crash. Bob was heading home from an Oregon air show in his beloved Hawker Hunter Mk. 58 swept-wing British Jet Fighter, when his plane went down in a Hillsboro neighborhood. Witnesses are describing his efforts to control the plane as heroic, saying that it looked like he did everything he could to avoid hurting anyone on the ground. Though he could have ejected, he tried to control the aircraft as long as possible.
Bob was a highly skilled pilot and a brilliant air disaster attorney. Aviation was his life. When he was not working at the firm, representing aviation accident victims, he was enjoying flying his planes. Bob had a great enthusiasm for high-performance aircraft. It was not too long after he earned his pilot license that he made the move to piston-powered fighters. Bob owned a series of aircraft: a racing F4U Corsair called "Blue Max" (the Corsair with the longest racing history), AD Skyraider, Spitfire, F8F Bearcat, P-51 Mustang, T-6, T-28, Hawker Sea Fury, Soko Galeb and the Hawker Hunter. He was the only FAA Authorized Instructor for the Hawker Hunter. He was authorized to train pilots to fly this aircraft, recommend them to the FAA and to requalify pilots after lapse of proficiency.
Air shows were very much a part of Bob's life. He began turning the pylons with his Corsair at the 1970 California 1,000 race held in Mojave. Then he participated in the Reno Air Races for 17 years and appeared at air shows across the country ever since. Bob has adorned aviation magazine covers and been featured in many articles and books about air sporting events including CNN, where he was the subject of a piece on civilian pilot air safety. Other pilots, even some as experienced as he, asked him for advice when taking on a new airplane, as he had the most experience.
Bob co-founded the WarBirds of America, one of the nation's leading vintage military aircraft organizations (now a division of the Experimental Aircraft Association) and has been chairman of the board, trustee, chief pilot, president, vice-president and member of many aviation organizations.
After receiving his law degree from Harvard in 1958 he became a commercial and instrument rated pilot. He served for a year as Assistant U.S. Attorney, Department of Justice, Los Angeles, CA and then went into private practice. Bob joined Baum Hedlund in 1992 specializing in aviation accident law. He was a member of the Lawyer-Pilots Bar Association and Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Bob had the highest lawyer rating with Martindale Hubbell and is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, Southern California Super Lawyers and in Aviation Counsel Magazine's List of Recommended High Flyers.
He is sorely missed.
The only thing I was interested in was, "What kind of vintage aircraft was it?"
You could be right, I don't know. Here's the story in The Oregonian.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1153106736147170.xml&coll=7&thispage=2
Justice would be served with a class-action suit against his estate by all those at the airshow who were traumitized by his negligent flying and / or poor aircraft maintenance practices.
Poetic justice.
While I am tempted to co-hate, I do note that he doesn't sound like the world's worst guy.
you'll be as arrogant and less heart felt as the rest of us
You could be right Moonman. I've been here almost a year and my first reaction was "that's sad". Then after further review "Naw". (My Dad's a lawyer, so I can't be too hard on them)
Flier - Robert Guilford's son says his father likely chose not to eject to protect people below
Monday, July 17, 2006
STUART TOMLINSON
Steve Guilford has a sense of what his father, Robert Guilford, was trying to do in the moments before his jet crashed after taking off from Hillsboro Airport.
Guilford said he learned of Sunday's crash from his father's mechanic at Van Nuys Airport. Based on information from him and news reports, Guilford said it sounded as though his father stayed with the aircraft rather than ejecting because as soon as he would have ejected, the plane would have nosed into the ground.
"That's why he didn't eject," Guilford said. "When you fly these things, you have a responsibility to the people on the ground. The seat had just been overhauled, and I feel confident if he could have, he would have used it. Knowing there was a field close by tells me he stayed with it until it was too late."
Despite his love of flying some of the most powerful combat airplanes ever built, his father was a conservative pilot, Guilford said. Guilford, 43, said his dad used to fly his P-51 Mustang at air shows slow enough for the pilots who flew the plane during World War II to admire them but fast enough so it produced its signature sound.
"The Japanese used to call the plane 'whistling death' because the oil coolers on the wings would whistle," Guilford said. "People would come up to me and say, 'Your dad's plane is so cool because it whistles.' "
Guilford said his father was a major player in the combat airplane community and a co-founder of Warbirds of America in the early 1960s. He said his father owned a number of P-51 Mustangs, a Corsair, a Yugoslavian jet and the Hawker Hunter jet that crashed Sunday.
"It was his favorite, but any plane he was flying was his favorite," Guilford said.
Robert Guilford's Hawker-Siddeley Hunter MK-58, which he had owned since 1995, is a military swept-wing jet fighter built in the 1950s by Hawker Siddeley Aviation, a British firm with a long history in military aircraft.
Steve Guilford said his father was one of the few people authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration to certify pilots in transonic jets, similar to the one that crashed Sunday, and other high-performance combat airplanes.
He said actor Tom Cruise saw his father's P-51 hangar at Van Nuys Airport and told airport officials he would pay double to lease it.
"My dad had to move his plane so Tom Cruise could take his hangar," Guilford said. "Of course, my dad was into the warbirds before it was fashionable." During Memorial Day weekend 1989, the engine on one of Guilford's P-51s failed, and it crashed into a house near Santa Monica, Calif., Guilford said. Guilford and his third wife, Judy, walked away, and nobody in the house was hurt.
"He was not a fly-by-night guy," he said. "He knew what he was doing and kept his airplanes very well maintained. It sounds like Sunday there was some kind of mechanical failure, a flameout."
Hoisted by his own petard?
Ironic.
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