California air crash may set insurance record

Press, 9 November 1978, Page 17

California air crash may set insurance record

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WILLIAM SCOBIE,

“Observer,” Loudon

America’s worst air disaster, in terms of lost lives, seems destined also to become the world’s costliest in terms of claims by relatives of the 144 victims.

Air-crash litigation experts believe that the total compensation to families of passengers aboard the Boeing 727 which collided with a light plane over San Diego in September may surpass even the sum awarded after the 1974 DC-10 crash near Paris that killed 346.

The claims are flowing in. A class-action suit against Pacific Southwest Airlines (P.S.A.), whose 727 jetliner nose-dived into a busy suburb after the collision. seeking SSOM in punitive damages, plus an unspecified sum in actual damages, has been filed in the California courts. Some attorneys in Los Angeles believe that as much as SI2SM may eventually be paid out by insurers in London and elsewhere. One reason for these

high estimates is that dozens of those who died in the crash were wealthy business executives who leave behind wives and children. With compensation based on the victim’s lifelong earning ability and the number of dependants, the final figure granted relatives of th? 135 P.S.A. passengers should be exceptional. Whatever the claims, P.S.A. chiefs say the air» line has “adequate coverage.” A second reason is

that the Federal Aviation Agency may also be sued by plaintiffs charging that its safety rules are inadequate. The United States Government could thus face massive claims, although under present law it cannot be sued until six months after the accident.

“The F.A.A. is responsible for separating planes in flight.” says a lawyer, Windle Turley who represents the family of one crash victim. George Saunders. “They make the

rules, and clearly the rules didn’t work in this case.” Turley has filed a separate S2M suit in Los Angeles on behalf of Saunders’ widow and two teen-age sons. Saunders was an air-safety expert who worked at the University of California. He left written instructions as to what should be

done in the event of his death in an air crash, including filing suit at the earliest moment to pre’ serve evidence from the accident, and to “establish responsible parties in litigation.”

What are the chances of successfully suing the federal government? Turley notes that in the past

the F.A.A. has avoided legal liability in similar cases by arguing that under the “see-and-avoid” system, pilots — rather than ground controllers — bear the ultimate responsibility for collisions. “See and-avo'id simply means you just have "to watch where you’re going,” says one airline pilot. “Trouble is, no pilot has all-round vision.”

In the San Diego case, the F.A.A. may be in trouble. The city's Lind-

bergh Field airport has one of the busiest, most hazardous approaches in the nation. Pilots must ease big jets down a corridor between hills and high-rise towers while simultaneously keeping an eye on the light planes often flown by trainees, which have liberal access to the airport. No less than five small aircraft were in the air near San Diego when the collision between the 727 and the Cessna 172 occurred. Attorneys in earlier col-

union cases have argued that the E.A.A. must insist an installation of crashavoidance instruments in all aircraft, as well as a “positive radar separation policy” that controls all planes in an airport approach area. This time their arguments may prove more telling.

Despite clear skies and warnings to both pilots from the ground, they failed to see each other. It seems likely that each plane had moved into a blind spot in the other's sightlines: the high-winged Cessna as it climbed into the sun and the low-wing-ed 727. its nose up at the start of descent. “If they present ‘see-

and-avoid’ method is maintained.” says Captain Wallace Roberts, of Lus Angeles, a flier of Lght planes and an airline pilot who commands 7275, "it's only a matter of time before we see another P.S.A.-type disaster. The only way to avoid that is total separation of commerical airliners from all other aircraft.” For years, says Roberts, general aviation interests had lobbied, "with passive co-operation from a spineless F.A.A..” against total protection of airliners from the growing armada of small planes and corporate jets O.F.N S. COPYRIGHT