Left inset: Tanya Hendry (Dignity Memorial). Right inset: Jonathan Spano (Instagram/@trafficmanagementinc). Background: The California cliff that Tanya Hendry plummeted off of while allegedly riding in an ATV at Jonathan Spano’s “Burning Man”-style party (San Luis Obispo County).
A California stunt pilot who worked on the 2022 movie “Top Gun: Maverick” was sued by the family of a woman who died at a party he threw, during which she plummeted off a beachside cliff while riding in an ATV. The pilot has reached a settlement agreement with the family after being accused of “providing drugs and alcohol” to the driver.
Tanya Hendry, 34, “died a horrific and excruciating death by drowning” in December 2020 after falling off the San Luis Obispo County cliff with driver Maria Arayza-Alvarez, who was also named in the 2022 civil suit and previously settled with Hendry’s family.
Arayza-Alvarez was charged with driving under the influence, causing injury or death to another and gross vehicular manslaughter after Hendry’s death, which led to a conviction and four months of jail time, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
Hendry’s family claimed that the party host, Jonathan Spano, and the property owner of the location where his party was held, Harmony Bluffs LLC, supplied drugs and alcohol that caused Arayza-Alvarez to drive in a “negligent and reckless manner” before going over the cliff.
“Defendants Jonathan Spano and Harmony Bluffs LLC held a party in which they permitted their venue to be used for the operation of a high performance recreational vehicle, a Can Am, by guests under the influence, to whom they had been providing drugs and alcohol, in an effort to put on a version of the Burning Man Festival during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the family’s legal complaint said.
“The aforementioned defendants agreed that [Arayza-Alvarez], who had no experience driving such a vehicle, should operate it, despite the fact she was under the influence, and despite the fact that it was nighttime, and — to the knowledge of the premises defendants — near the location of a sheer cliff,” the complaint alleged. “Each defendant furnished a component of this activity, thereby acting in furtherance of it: the premises, the vehicle, and permission for the use of each by an individual under the influence.”
In addition to these “unreasonable and reckless choices,” Hendry’s family accused Spano — who describes himself online as a “helicopter and jet film stunt pilot” — and Harmony Bluffs of failing to provide “warnings or guard” against the “known dangerous condition of the sheer cliff,” thereby contributing to her driving off of it, according to the complaint.
“These decisions culminated in the Can Am driving off the cliff, killing one of its occupants [Hendry] who died a horrific and excruciating death by drowning in the ensuing minutes,” the complaint said.
The terms of Spano’s settlement agreement are confidential. His lawyers did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment, nor did Arayza-Alvarez’s lawyers.
“In life, we all make mistakes,” the Hendry family’s attorney, Nicholas Rowley, told The Tribune.
“What defines us is what we do with our mistakes and whether or not we accept responsibility and how and when we accept responsibility,” he said. “I see this as the defense accepting responsibility, and that’s all the family wanted.”
