City, widow of Florida surgeon who died in plane crash reach $700K settlement

May 31—The estate of a Florida plastic surgeon who died when his plane crashed shortly after take off in Howard County has reached a settlement with the city of Kokomo, bringing an end to a lawsuit that alleged negligence by city airport employee and improper training given to Kokomo Municipal Airport employees.

The Estate of Daniel Greenwald will be paid a $700,000 settlement, the max amount allowed under Indiana's tort claim laws, according to court documents filed last week in Howard County Superior Court IV. The estate and Julia Greenwald, the widow of Daniel Greenwald, have filed a petition asking Judge Hans Pate to accept the settlement agreement, which will be paid the city's insurance. As of Friday morning, the court has ruled on the request, though settlements are usually accepted.

As a result of the settlement, the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the stated and Julia Greenwald in March of last year will be dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be brought back to court.

An email sent Friday to legal representatives of the estate seeking comment on the settlement and lawsuit were returned as of Friday evening.

Kokomo Mayor Tyler Moore called the incident a "devastating situation" for the Greenwald family.

"Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the Greenwald family," he said in an email.

Dr. Daniel P. Greenwald, a plastic surgeon from Tampa, died on Oct. 5, 2019 when his twin-engine Piper Aerostar 603P crashed in a field just south of Indiana 22 shortly after takeoff from Kokomo Municipal Airport. He was the only person onboard.

A complaint filed by Julie Greenwald and the estate of Daniel Greenwald alleges that the death was due to an airport employee putting the wrong fuel into Daniel Greenwald's airplane.

The plane should have been filled up with Avgas, but the complaint alleges the employee put in Jet A fuel instead.

A preliminary investigation report by the National Transportation Safety Board in October focused on the type of fuel given to the plane before it took off from Kokomo Municipal Airport, though it did not list a cause.

According to the report, several of the plane's engine spark plugs sustained damage that was "consistent with detonation," and that a clear liquid "consistent in color and order with that of Jet A fuel" was found in the fuel lines and manifolds of both of the plane's engines.

An employee of the airport, according to the NTSB report, told investigators he asked Daniel Greenwald two separate times if he wanted jet fuel for his twin-engine Piper Aerostar 602P because, according to the employee, the plane "looked like a jet airplane." Both times, the report states, Greenwald told the airport employee "yes." The report does not name the airport employee, but the Greenwald lawsuit alleges the employee was John Yount.

The estate's lawsuit denied that Daniel Greenwald ever told anyone to put in jet fuel in his plane and that there were warnings and fueling instructions on the plane's fuel tank apertures.

"Dr. Greenwald was a highly experienced pilot and never instructed anyone to fuel this aircraft with Jet A fuel," the complaint reads.

In its formal response to the lawsuit, the city denied any wrongdoing.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Daniel Greenwald had been flying airplanes since he was a teenager. According to the Times, he was a "well-known well-known plastic surgeon with a private practice, Bayshore Plastic Surgery, in Tampa's Channelside district" and was "named one of America's top surgeons in 2009 and specialized in hand and microvascular surgery, cosmetic plastic surgery and also performed gender reassignment surgeries."

Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich