The family of iconic Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera's makeup artist has filed the first of what could be many forthcoming lawsuits seeking to determine why the star's plane crashed in Mexico Dec. 9 killing her and six others.
The family of the makeup artist, identified as Jacob Yebale, has filed a petition for discovery in Chicago, Ill. seeking information on the aircraft's history. The lawsuit will take on the owner, leasing company, and maintenance company of the plane, as well as Learjet, lawyers said. Relatives filed the legal papers in an attempt to compel Bombardier Aerospace and its Learjet division to identify all those who ever owned, operated, or repaired the Learjet 25, ABC News reported.
"The family members of Jacob Yebale have taken the initial step to find out the real cause as to why the plane crashed. The family members want all of the responsible parties to be brought to justice," Monica Kelly, Head of Global Aviation at Ribbeck Law said in a statement.
The litigation in the U.S. will seek millions of dollars in damages, Kelly added.
"The companies have to be punished for their dangerous wrongful behavior that has caused the loss of seven lives. These companies do not have feelings. They only understand dollars and cents. That is why we have to get a multi-million dollar award, to hurt them in their pockets, where it really hurts them, sothey change the way they conduct business," she said.
The Learjet carrying Rivera, Yebale, and five others was built in 1969, and records show it sustained significant damage in a 2005 accident when it experienced a fuel system malfunction, according to ABC News.
Rivera and her crew were killed when the small private Learjet flying them from the northern Mexican city of Monterrey to the central city of Toluca plummeted from 28,000 feet, said Mexico's transportation secretary said, crashing into a mountainous area 9,000 feet above sea level.
According to CNN, the cause of the crash is under investigation. The accident report will not be ready for nine months to a year, the secretary of communications and transportation said.
The DEA recently announced it is currently investigating Starwood Management, the company that owns the luxury jet that crashed and killed Rivera and her crew. The agency seized two of its planes earlier this year as part of the ongoing probe, reported The Huffington Post.
Planes owned by Las Vegas-based Starwood management were seized in Texas and Arizona, DEA spokeswoman Lisa Webb Johnson confirmed, but declined to discuss details of the case.
"The DEA has subpoenaed all the company's records, including any correspondence it has had with a former Tijuana mayor who U.S. law enforcement officials have long suspected has ties to organized crime," the Post noted.
According to CNN, two lawsuits against Starwood Management accuse the company of lying about its links to a businessman convicted of falsifying maintenance records.
The man who runs the business, 50-year-old Christian Esquino "has a long and checkered legal past," but he told the Associated Press he's been dogged by the DEA since the 1980s after he sold a plane in Florida to a prominent drug trafficker who eventually used the craft as part of a huge smuggling operation.
Esquino says the federal government is convinced he has ties to Tijuana's notorious Arellano Felix cartel, which he outright denies.
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