1999 Arlington crash jury award

On 12 Jan 2007 07:17:57 -0800, "stol" wrote:

Kevin Davidson wrote:
This one really has me bothered: 1999 NWEAA Arlington Fly-in, pilot in RV-6
rushes departure at high angle of attack, crashes, dies in the ensuing fire.
His survivors sue EAA and NWEAA claiming the fire crews didn't get there
soon enough. The stated claims don't even agree with the NTSB report.

http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#194197

What I can't believe is there is no video of the event to show the
response time. There had to be thousands of people .there and more
then one camera... It just shows the the jury system has some serious
faults. It would have been nice if the widow would admit her husband
was showing off his new toy and had the classic departure stall while
trying to impress the crowd with the planes climb rate. Surely this is
not the fault of the EAA.....

There is some video, as the local TV stations showed a clip of the airplane
burning.

The local rumor mill suggests the pilot had secured the right-side stick with
the seat belt. The accident occurred just prior to the start of the air show,
folks suspect the pilot was rushing to get off the field before the tower closed
down the traffic.

The jury award, I guess, boils down to expectations. I've been to major league
baseball games, for instance, and you can usually see an aid car at the stadium,
on the grounds that out of a crowd of 50,000 people, someone is probably going
to require medical attention. The jury apparently felt it was reasonable to
expect an event attracting thousands of airplanes to have a dedicated
fire/rescue unit.

There was a fire station on the airport grounds, but it was a normal city
station, not specifically for the airport and certainly not dedicated to
supporting the fly-in. I don't know if it had a separate door for letting the
trucks onto the airport itself, or if the fly-in had a means other than calling
9-1-1 to summon the fire department. If the answer was "no" to both questions,
that means that the summons for help would have had to go through the 9-1-1
dispatcher and the trucks would have had to drive around the outside of the
airport to the nearest gate. If so, it would explain the reported six-minute
reaction time.

But considering that the air show itself was about to start, I would be
surprised to discover there wasn't a fire/rescue vehicle standing by. You'd
think the fly-in's insurance would have required it.

I was in the announcer tower during another accident, and the fly-in's reaction
was speedy and efficient. There was a radio code used to notify persons of an
accident. I suspect the fire station was at least given a radio on that net.

There's a more detailed article on the lawsuit at:

http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/app...73268827728753


Ron Wanttaja