Sons claim negligence contributed to crash that killed 3
Flagler County sheriff's office investigators and firefighters
inspect the scene of a fiery plane crash into a house at 22 Utica Path,
Palm Coast on Friday January 4, 2013. NEWS-JOURNAL FILE/DAVID TUCKER
Published: Thursday, July 30, 2015 at 11:21 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, July 30, 2015 at 3:38 p.m.
PALM COAST — Michael R. Anders felt an unexpected vibration in
his airplane's propeller and immediately reported it by radio to the
nearest control tower.
Anders, who was flying a 1957 Beechcraft single-engine plane the afternoon of Jan. 4, 2013, told air-traffic controllers, "I need some help here." Those in the Daytona Beach tower erred by directing Anders to an airport 8 miles away instead of one that was 2 miles closer, according to a civil complaint filed Wednesday in federal court.
The plane subsequently crashed into a house in Palm Coast less than a mile from the airport, killing Anders, 58, and his two passengers. The family of one of those passengers, Charisse Peoples, 42, filed a wrongful death suit Wednesday against the Federal Aviation Administration.
Attorneys for Peoples' two sons, now adults, are alleging the FAA was negligent when its air-traffic controllers directed Anders to the Flagler County Airport, which they said was 5 miles from Anders' location when he radioed for help. The lawsuit states the Flagler airport actually was 8 miles away at the time, while the Ormond Beach Municipal Airport was 6 miles from his location.
The lawsuit alleges more mistakes were committed by FAA employees. The air-traffic controllers directed Anders to fly farther away from the Flagler airport and perform a number of turns, which meant his aircraft was losing altitude with insufficient engine power, said Timothy A. Loranger, the attorney representing Peoples' sons in the lawsuit. By the time he was less than a mile from the Flagler airport, he had descended too much and had no power to make it to the closest runway.
The plane crashed into a single-family home at 22 Utica Path.
"(Anders) needed help ... and everyone in the air-traffic control center was treating this like an emergency," said Loranger during a phone interview Thursday. "The solution they came up with was not the right solution."
Darrel Joseph, administrator for Peoples' estate, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the estate and Peoples' two sons, ages 21 and 19, respectively, in U.S. District Court in Orlando.
The flight left the St. Lucie County International Airport in Fort Pierce and was headed to the Knoxville Downtown Island Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee. A third person, Duane L. Shaw, 59, also was a passenger on the plane. Anders and Shaw were both from Albany, Kentucky.
The plane lost oil pressure, descended fast and crashed into a house owned by Susan Crockett. Crockett was in another room when the nose of the plane ripped through the ceiling above her living room. Crockett escaped through a bedroom window with minor injuries, but everyone on the plane died at the scene.
Loranger said he believes the crash was caused by a clear case of negligence on the part of the FAA.
"The United States, through the Federal Aviation Administration and its air-traffic controllers, breached its ... duties when it negligently failed to use the reasonable care and diligence exercised by other air-traffic controllers under the same or similar circumstances, committing acts and/or omissions constituting negligence," Loranger stated in a news release.
During his phone interview with the News-Journal, Loranger said controllers could have instructed Anders to maintain as much altitude as possible by talking him through a direct flight to the airport. Doing so would have allowed him to descend below the clouds and land safely at any of the available runways, said Loranger.
Instead, Anders lost valuable time and with every unnecessary turn he took, by direction of the tower, the plane lost altitude. He was unable to increase altitude because of the engine failure, Loranger said.
The crash occurred about 4,200 feet southeast of the runway, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the accident.
Loranger specializes in aviation law and practices in Los Angeles. He is with the law firm Baum, Hedlund, Aristei and Goldman, which has an office in Tallahassee.
Nicole A. Navas, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Justice, confirmed her agency is aware of the case.
"We are reviewing the complaint and have no further comment at this time," Navas said.
Through a spokeswoman, the FAA stated it would not comment because it does not discuss open civil maters.
Loranger said Peoples, Anders and Shaw "very likely would have survived" had the air-traffic controllers done their job properly.
"Like every grieving family, they are devastated by the loss and are trying to understand how anything like this could happen," Loranger said of Peoples' sons. "When they learned that their mother could have lived if appropriate decisions were made, it saddened them."
Two years after the crash, Crockett filed a claim of her own in federal court seeking damages. Crockett and her attorney, Marc Dwyer, also have contacted state lawmakers in an effort to invoke federal regulations that would prohibit pilots from flying without insurance. That would be the bigger gain for them compared to any monetary compensation, said Dwyer. They hope to see changes in the law.
"I hope justice is done in those cases, and that the families who lost their loved ones do not suffer a complete loss," Dwyer told the News-Journal on Thursday. "The larger issue still needs to be addressed, the issue that our government allows these pilots to fly without having insurance."
Loranger said the insurance matter is a critical issue. He pointed out that the number of cases involving passengers and others victimized by plane crashes continues to increase while no new regulations are being implemented.
"It has been an issue for us that we've run into many times," he said. "That goes not only for the operator of the aircraft, but maintenance facilities as well."
S.V. Dedmon, an aviation law expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told the News-Journal last year that the federal government sees it as "risk-management issue." In other words, in the eyes of lawmakers, there aren't enough aviation casualties to warrant mandatory insurance laws for pilots flying smaller aircraft.
In 2012, there were 33,561 highway deaths in the U.S. By comparison, there were 449 aviation-related deaths that same year, according to the NTSB.
Anders, who was flying a 1957 Beechcraft single-engine plane the afternoon of Jan. 4, 2013, told air-traffic controllers, "I need some help here." Those in the Daytona Beach tower erred by directing Anders to an airport 8 miles away instead of one that was 2 miles closer, according to a civil complaint filed Wednesday in federal court.
The plane subsequently crashed into a house in Palm Coast less than a mile from the airport, killing Anders, 58, and his two passengers. The family of one of those passengers, Charisse Peoples, 42, filed a wrongful death suit Wednesday against the Federal Aviation Administration.
Attorneys for Peoples' two sons, now adults, are alleging the FAA was negligent when its air-traffic controllers directed Anders to the Flagler County Airport, which they said was 5 miles from Anders' location when he radioed for help. The lawsuit states the Flagler airport actually was 8 miles away at the time, while the Ormond Beach Municipal Airport was 6 miles from his location.
The lawsuit alleges more mistakes were committed by FAA employees. The air-traffic controllers directed Anders to fly farther away from the Flagler airport and perform a number of turns, which meant his aircraft was losing altitude with insufficient engine power, said Timothy A. Loranger, the attorney representing Peoples' sons in the lawsuit. By the time he was less than a mile from the Flagler airport, he had descended too much and had no power to make it to the closest runway.
The plane crashed into a single-family home at 22 Utica Path.
"(Anders) needed help ... and everyone in the air-traffic control center was treating this like an emergency," said Loranger during a phone interview Thursday. "The solution they came up with was not the right solution."
Darrel Joseph, administrator for Peoples' estate, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the estate and Peoples' two sons, ages 21 and 19, respectively, in U.S. District Court in Orlando.
The flight left the St. Lucie County International Airport in Fort Pierce and was headed to the Knoxville Downtown Island Airport in Knoxville, Tennessee. A third person, Duane L. Shaw, 59, also was a passenger on the plane. Anders and Shaw were both from Albany, Kentucky.
The plane lost oil pressure, descended fast and crashed into a house owned by Susan Crockett. Crockett was in another room when the nose of the plane ripped through the ceiling above her living room. Crockett escaped through a bedroom window with minor injuries, but everyone on the plane died at the scene.
Loranger said he believes the crash was caused by a clear case of negligence on the part of the FAA.
"The United States, through the Federal Aviation Administration and its air-traffic controllers, breached its ... duties when it negligently failed to use the reasonable care and diligence exercised by other air-traffic controllers under the same or similar circumstances, committing acts and/or omissions constituting negligence," Loranger stated in a news release.
During his phone interview with the News-Journal, Loranger said controllers could have instructed Anders to maintain as much altitude as possible by talking him through a direct flight to the airport. Doing so would have allowed him to descend below the clouds and land safely at any of the available runways, said Loranger.
Instead, Anders lost valuable time and with every unnecessary turn he took, by direction of the tower, the plane lost altitude. He was unable to increase altitude because of the engine failure, Loranger said.
The crash occurred about 4,200 feet southeast of the runway, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the accident.
Loranger specializes in aviation law and practices in Los Angeles. He is with the law firm Baum, Hedlund, Aristei and Goldman, which has an office in Tallahassee.
Nicole A. Navas, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Justice, confirmed her agency is aware of the case.
"We are reviewing the complaint and have no further comment at this time," Navas said.
Through a spokeswoman, the FAA stated it would not comment because it does not discuss open civil maters.
Loranger said Peoples, Anders and Shaw "very likely would have survived" had the air-traffic controllers done their job properly.
"Like every grieving family, they are devastated by the loss and are trying to understand how anything like this could happen," Loranger said of Peoples' sons. "When they learned that their mother could have lived if appropriate decisions were made, it saddened them."
Two years after the crash, Crockett filed a claim of her own in federal court seeking damages. Crockett and her attorney, Marc Dwyer, also have contacted state lawmakers in an effort to invoke federal regulations that would prohibit pilots from flying without insurance. That would be the bigger gain for them compared to any monetary compensation, said Dwyer. They hope to see changes in the law.
"I hope justice is done in those cases, and that the families who lost their loved ones do not suffer a complete loss," Dwyer told the News-Journal on Thursday. "The larger issue still needs to be addressed, the issue that our government allows these pilots to fly without having insurance."
Loranger said the insurance matter is a critical issue. He pointed out that the number of cases involving passengers and others victimized by plane crashes continues to increase while no new regulations are being implemented.
"It has been an issue for us that we've run into many times," he said. "That goes not only for the operator of the aircraft, but maintenance facilities as well."
S.V. Dedmon, an aviation law expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told the News-Journal last year that the federal government sees it as "risk-management issue." In other words, in the eyes of lawmakers, there aren't enough aviation casualties to warrant mandatory insurance laws for pilots flying smaller aircraft.
In 2012, there were 33,561 highway deaths in the U.S. By comparison, there were 449 aviation-related deaths that same year, according to the NTSB.