Google co-founder Sergey Brin is facing a wrongful death lawsuit from the widow of one of two pilots who died in a plane crash off the coast of California in May 2023. She blames the crash on a poorly installed modification and claims its officials intentionally slowed down recovery efforts to destroy evidence, as previously reported by Bloomberg and Fortune.
An updated statement of claim filed Feb. 13 in Santa Clara County Superior Court in California states that Lance Maclean and co-pilot Dean Rushfedlt were hired to take Brin's seaplane from California to Fiji to meet friends there to fly off the island. Transporting the $8 million twin-engine Viking Air Twin Otter Series 400 previously required an auxiliary fuel system, which a mechanic in the complaint said he did “from memory” without consulting a checklist or logging it to the FAA .
During the first leg of the flight to Hawaii, the fuel system failed and the plane crashed into the ocean while attempting to return to California. The Coast Guard arrived within 15 minutes but was unable to rescue any of the pilots from the upside-down and partially submerged aircraft.
Aside from Brin, the lawsuit names Google and Brin's family investment firm Bayshore Management as co-owners of the plane, along with those responsible for setting up the flight and maintaining the plane.
After her death, Brin said he would help her recover, according to the lawsuit. But then Brin's representatives allegedly told Maclean's widow, Maria Magdalena Olarte, that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had prevented them from recovering the bodies – a claim NOAA denied, according to the complaint.
Olarte is seeking damages on five counts, including voluntary manslaughter and negligent survival, and is demanding a jury trial.