Arlington Fly-In Lawsuit Reversed

Denny wrote:

While the appeals court ruled in favor of aviation, their (usual)
logic chopping just turns your stomach...

It basically said that the NWEAA is not liable ONLY because the
airplane crashed off the area of dirt that was under contract for the
show... Had it rolled up into a ball near the exhibit tents or in the
aircraft parking area it is likely that the court would have hit the
NWEAA with the entire $10M judgment - after correctly excusing the
EAA...


I think if you review the records you will find that the court assigned
the blame for Don Corbitt's crash to Don, a low time pilot. His death
did not necessarily follow from his crash.

It also never said that NWEAA is not liable "ONLY" because the airplane
crashed outside of the area that NWEAA had leased. The Corbitt estate
presented a logical argument supporting their view of NWEAA and EAA
liability based on a series of propositions. The appellate court
determined that more than one of the foundational propositions was
incorrect. Why review the rest of the chain of logic?

As far as the motivation for the suit goes, I am guessing that since
Corbitt RETIRED from Microsoft in 1988 at the age of 37 and bought a
plane he was one of many Microsoft millionaires and the widow was not
just chasing the money. She was probably more motivated by outrage
that her husband died horribly in full view of spectators and emergency
personnel and if event coordinators had arranged for a properly trained
and equipped crew to be there it might have turned out very differently.

As far as our litigious society goes, I don't like it either, but it is
not necessarily inherent in the system and I don't know that I believe
the system is flawed. People abuse it. There are good lawyers out
there ( probably the majority, if the many I know are any indication)
and there are bad ones. The legal profession by its nature probably
attracts more than its fair share of assholes, but it does not damn the
whole profession. At the end of the day the lawyers represent clients
that are not generally lawyers. So the problem is fueled by a
contingent of ordinary citizens that chose to treat our incredible legal
system like a slot machine. The problem is enabled by a host of
defendants that try to abdicate their moral responsibilities and
preserve their profits by hiding behind the ambiguities of law. Finally
the whole system is greased by a jury of average citizens, which means
six to twelve people that are willfully ignorant of about everything
other than sports and the the latest American Idol contestants. It also
doesn't help that lawyers seem to prefer their jurors that way -- if you
want a quick exit from jury duty, just tell them you are an engineer or
have an advanced degree.

As far as the EAA and NWEAA goes, the flyin is the largest on the west
coast and the third largest in the nation. Their own materials boast of
fifty thousand visitors and hundreds of aircraft. This is not a low
buck flyin. They have warbirds, homebuilts in attendance and even
vintage aircraft offering rides. They evidently had a history of
crashes at the event (not their fault, it happens...) Two fatal crashes
that year in fact. With all of this, the emergency response consisted
of a city fire truck manned by a predominately volunteer fire department
who had no training and no special equipment for handling airplane
crashes - basically a water truck for extinguishing a fuel fire. In
Texas we have a lot of VFG's. My brother heads one up. I have immense
respect for them, which is why it is disheartening when they are set up
to fail. This wasn't some pancake breakfast, it was a multi-million
dollar event and an actual crash isn't some statistical anomaly, but a
reasonable expectation.

I do love this press release though:

"This year, the Arlington Fly-In drops Northwest Experimental Aircraft
Association from its name for the first time in 20 years. The change is
part of a new EAA agreement clarifying the national group’s role, said
the event’s executive director, Barbara Tolbert.

“The agreement offers the Arlington Fly-In a new, higher level of
support from EAA,” she said. “We’ll be getting extensive promotion and
coverage of the event from the EAA, which will be a major sponsor of
educational forums and workshops.”

Anyway, just my opinion, and my facts could be totally off base.

Charles