What a bummer! That is one expensive mistake. I assume he is going to have to pay for it out of his pocket as I doubt he has any insurance.

A couple years ago, one of the owners of a Cardinal down at the airport took off with the towbar still attached and resting on the nose wheel pants. When he landed, it bounced up and the prop struck it. One of the other owners told me that insurance covered the teardown of the engine (which had only about 450 hours SMOH) and the new prop because it was an accident. That was a bit of a surprise to me.