A New York city attorney has sued a Groton aviation company and its owner for $1.5 million after his turboprop plane was rammed by a fuel truck at the Groton-New London Airport last summer.

George J. Sampas flew his 2006 Socata TBM turboprop to the Groton airport on Aug. 9, 2011, to be repaired by Lanmar Aviation, an aeronautical company known as a fixed-base operator (FBO) that provides services such as fueling, hangar space and aircraft maintenance.

According to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court, Lanmar employees completed the minor repair and parked the plane on the ramp in front of the FBO's maintenance hangar. A Lanmar fuel truck backed into the plane, knocking it off the chocks that had been placed against the tires to prevent it from moving and causing damage to the turboprop's tail and fuselage, according to the lawsuit.

Sampas, under the corporate name Star Child LLC, has sued Lanmar Aviation and owner/president Richard A. Polidori for failing to prevent the accident. In the lawsuit, Star Child claims Lanmar and Polidori neglected to maintain standard operating and safety procedures and that the company's claim of high safety standards in its advertising is misleading.

The accident could have been easily avoided by using a two-person crew to back up the fuel truck, Sampas said in a phone interview Monday. He said that since the accident, Lanmar has brought in a new manager.

"The fact that they didn't have adequate safety procedures in place is irresponsible," Sampas said. "They advertise themselves as being a safe FBO."

The plane has been trucked to its manufacturer in Florida for repairs and an insurance claim has been opened in the case. Sampas said he bought the plane in 2009 and used it mostly for pleasure trips with his family. He said he used the plane to transport doctors and supplies to Haiti following the January 2010 earthquake.

Sampas said Polidori has not apologized for the accident and won't take his phone calls. Sampas said he does not intend to use the plane again to transport his family and thinks it would be difficult to sell. He would like Lanmar to purchase the plane for the its pre-accident value or fully compensate him for the repairs, his loss of use and the plane's diminished value.

The repairs are estimated at $400,000, according to the lawsuit. Sampas is seeking $20,000 a month for loss of use of the plane and says its value has been diminished by approximately $690,000 as a result of the accident.

Polidori, of Old Saybrook and Boca Raton, Fla., could not be reached for comment Monday. His attorney, Steven E. Arnold of the West Hartford firm Stanger & Arnold, declined to comment but pointed to documents he has filed in response to the lawsuit.

In a motion to dismiss the claims against Polidori, Arnold wrote that Lanmar, through its insurance company, has acknowledged the company's responsibility to compensate Sampas for recoverable damages and that Lanmar has adequate insurance coverage.

The defendant's motion claims that Sampas cannot sue Polidori individually and that he is attempting to "pierce Lanmar's corporate veil in order to acquire Connecticut long arm jurisdiction over Polidori and make him personally liable" for the damages.

k.florin@theday.com