The son of Patricia Hicks, one of the 10 people killed in last year’s Whidbey Island floatplane crash, has filed the fourth lawsuit against the flight’s charter operator and aircraft manufacturer, mirroring representatives who sued last month on behalf of the remaining eight passengers.
All four lawsuits name several aviation entities, including Northwest Seaplanes and de Havilland Aircraft of Canada, as defendants and say the companies are responsible for the victims’ deaths in the crash off Whidbey Island in September 2022.
Hicks’ son filed the lawsuit Tuesday in King County Superior Court.
Hicks, a 66-year-old retired schoolteacher, was returning from a vacation in the San Juan Islands with her partner, Sandy Williams, when the single-engine de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Turbine Otter plummeted into Puget Sound. Her remains were identified a month later.
Representatives for the estates of Lauren Hilty, 39, and her unborn son, Luca; Joanne Mera; Gabrielle Hanna; and Williams filed one wrongful death lawsuit. Representatives for Hilty’s husband, Ross Mickel, 47, and their 22-month-old son Remy Mickel filed the second lawsuit. Representatives for Rebecca and Luke Ludwig, a Minnesota couple who had two children, filed the third.
