John Travolta sued the owners of the airport outside his exclusive “fly-in” community, claiming they lied to the Federal Aviation Administration to keep him from landing his Boeing 707 there.
In the federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, the actor claims Greystone Airport owners James and Christine Garemore falsely changed the airport master record in 2006 to indicate that it could not support large airplanes.
Travolta has a home at the Jumbolair Aviation Estates in Ocala and wanted to fly his Boeing 707 there. It is an affluent, 550-acre community with a $6 million runway — the largest paved, private airfield in the United States.
The lawsuit is seeking an injunction requiring the Garemores to immediately withdraw the 2006 report and authorize flights with the airport master record as it existed before. It also seeks to nullify the report because of false or misleading information to the FAA and to prohibit “future baseless filings.”
“The runway is not suitable for heavy aircraft. It is cracking and breaking,” James Garemore told The Associated Press on Friday. “They are bringing this lawsuit against me, and all I was doing was trying to maintain safety here.”
Todd Hopson, Garemore’s attorney, said his client never stopped Travolta from landing on the 7,550-foot runway.
Michael J. McDermott, Travolta’s attorney, said Garemore’s comments about the runway not being safe for large airplanes is incorrect.
“It’s spin in order to cover his butt because he knows that he is in big trouble for doing what he did, and we intend to establish that,” McDermott said.
The lawsuit was filed under the corporations Jett Clipper Johnny and Constellation and as Ellen Bannon and Margaret Rau, who are trustees of Hawker Investment Trust, the titled property owner for Travolta’s nine-acre spread near Jumbolair.
The Garemores established Greystone Airport in the 1980s, and Jumbolair was founded by exercise equipment guru Arthur Jones. The Garemores built the main runway to accommodate Jones’ 707s, but his flights were not as frequent as Travolta’s and did not deteriorate the runway as much, Garemore said.
Travolta built an $8 million home there and has continually used the runway without incident, the lawsuit said. It also claims Travolta was assured he would be able to use the airport.
FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said the administration is not involved in the dispute.
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