A tower-induced go-round

wrote:

The tower controller didn't care how
close he routed Jay to the higher and slower preceding aircraft so if
they happen to run together he gets a ' get out of jail card' for free
by spouting off this reg.

It would cost the FAA millions, already has. It is irrelavant that the
rules say controllers don't separate airplanes in the air within the
class D. If two aircraft run together while talking to the tower you
the taxpayers will buy both airplanes and compensate the families.








Maintain situational awareness - class D controllers are only
responsible for separation on the ground



Would you like to bet $25 Million on that statement?


A Broward jury has awarded $25.2 million to the family of a pilot killed
in a collision of two planes near Deerfield Beach almost three years ago.

The family of Steve Ross, a Boca Raton chaplain, filed the
wrongful-death suit against Robinson Aviation, a private contractor
operating the Boca Raton and Pompano Beach control towers.

Ross, who is survived by his wife and four children, was one of five
people who died when two small planes crashed in the water off Deerfield
Beach on June 16, 2003.

The jury in Circuit Judge Victor Tobin's courtroom Wednesday awarded
$1.2 million for economic damages and, for pain and suffering, $10
million to Ross' wife, Julie, and $3.5 million to each of the four children.

Steve Ross and a longtime friend, Douglas Bauer, 48, were flying a
Cessna 182 north to Boca Raton Airport. They were returning from a
missionary trip in the Bahamas and had just cleared U.S. Customs at Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

A Cessna 172, with a family of three aboard, was headed south to Fort
Lauderdale Executive Airport. At the controls was private pilot Johnny
Mark Willey, 39, of Margate, who was learning to be an airline pilot at
Gulfstream Training Academy. Willey was taking his wife and daughter for
a ride along the coast.

The two planes plowed into each other about 1,000 feet above the
Deerfield Beach International Fishing Pier and plunged into the water as
stunned beachgoers looked on.

According to the suit, the planes collided moments after both pilots
made contact with air-traffic controllers in Pompano Beach and Boca Raton.

"Robinson Aviation . . . otherwise directed or failed to direct air
traffic so as to avoid the midair collision of the two aircraft," the
suit reads.

Attorneys for Robinson Aviation could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The Ross family settled with Gulfstream Training Academy for an
undisclosed amount more than a year ago, contending that Willey was "not
fit, qualified or properly trained."