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Mark S
Guest
The FAA paid a $9.5 million settlement to families of four people who died in Florida when the pilot crashed due to spacial disorientation. The jury found the pilot only 35% responsible. he controlled was responsible because they "failed to provide current weather information to the pilot, contributing to the disorientation."
The next suit is:
...As More Suits Pending
Lawyers for the family of a 20-year-old pilot who died in a California accident in May 2004 also are preparing to file a wrongful-death suit against the FAA, according to CDAPress.com. Two pilots in a Piper Seminole were killed when they hit a mountain while flying IFR near Julian, Calif. The accident aircraft was the fourth of five Seminoles with similar call signs that were flying the same route together, and when a controller authorized one aircraft to descend, the wrong aircraft acknowledged the clearance. The NTSB said in December 2004 that the probable cause for the accident was that the controller issued the descent clearance using a partial call sign and failed to detect that the clearance was read back by the wrong pilot. The pilots also failed to question the clearance to an altitude below the published Minimum Enroute Altitude (MEA), the NTSB said. A contributing factor was that two controllers -- at the Center and the TRACON -- failed to properly respond to aural and visual minimum-altitude alerts from their equipment. "Aircraft are routinely descended below MEA by air traffic controllers without question by anyone," Timothy E. Miller, lawyer for the family, told CDAPress. "Pilots with approximately 200 hours of experience are taught to write down, read back and follow clearances exactly and to do so with minimum use of the radio."
Link: http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/365-full.html#189326
So, the wrong pilot read back the clearance and the controller failed to realize that's what happened. As a result, they crashed.
Just want to get this straight, if a pilot reads back the wrong clearance and ATC doesn't catch it, the NTSB will pull his ticket unless he dies then the FAA gets sued. Makes sense to me.
I wonder how many more of these we are going to get now?
Mark
The next suit is:
...As More Suits Pending
Lawyers for the family of a 20-year-old pilot who died in a California accident in May 2004 also are preparing to file a wrongful-death suit against the FAA, according to CDAPress.com. Two pilots in a Piper Seminole were killed when they hit a mountain while flying IFR near Julian, Calif. The accident aircraft was the fourth of five Seminoles with similar call signs that were flying the same route together, and when a controller authorized one aircraft to descend, the wrong aircraft acknowledged the clearance. The NTSB said in December 2004 that the probable cause for the accident was that the controller issued the descent clearance using a partial call sign and failed to detect that the clearance was read back by the wrong pilot. The pilots also failed to question the clearance to an altitude below the published Minimum Enroute Altitude (MEA), the NTSB said. A contributing factor was that two controllers -- at the Center and the TRACON -- failed to properly respond to aural and visual minimum-altitude alerts from their equipment. "Aircraft are routinely descended below MEA by air traffic controllers without question by anyone," Timothy E. Miller, lawyer for the family, told CDAPress. "Pilots with approximately 200 hours of experience are taught to write down, read back and follow clearances exactly and to do so with minimum use of the radio."
Link: http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/365-full.html#189326
So, the wrong pilot read back the clearance and the controller failed to realize that's what happened. As a result, they crashed.
Just want to get this straight, if a pilot reads back the wrong clearance and ATC doesn't catch it, the NTSB will pull his ticket unless he dies then the FAA gets sued. Makes sense to me.
I wonder how many more of these we are going to get now?
Mark
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