FAA Must Pay $3.75 Million For Doomed Flight Instructions
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The Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to pay $3.75 million after it gave faulty landing instructions during an emergency in December 2005.
Pilot Gary Tillman of Rome, Georgia, his daughter, Hannah, and her friend Anna Kipp died in the Atlantic off Vilano Beach when the FAA told the plane with engine trouble to fly to the St. Augustine Airport.
That was the critical mistake. Tillman has originally asked for help in making an emergency beach landing nearby, his best option at the time as he was about one mile off Vilano Beach, just north of St. Augustine. But he followed the FAA directions. The FAA is the authority, empowered by Congress to promote aviation safety for civil aviation.
Tillman told the FAA after the instructions, “We’re not going to make it” just before he crashed.
Another teenage friend, Rachel Hostetler, was pulled from the water and was the only one to survive the crash.
Out condolences go out to all of the family members for this crash that did not have to happen had Tillman been directed to the beach instead of south.
As attorney Woody Wilner told the jury, the air traffic controllers were at fault because Tillman had requested a beach landing. “He had one request. You know where I am, you have radar, I don’t,” Wilner said. Instead, the controllers sent him over water. The mistake Tillman made was to listen to what’s supposed to be the ultimate authority in the skies.
Air traffic controllers are there for one purpose, to protect the public. What happened here indicates they did not act fast enough in ascertaining the seriousness of the situation to save these three precious lives. The FAA did not admit any fault in the accident.
Our condolences go out to the survivors of this tragedy who had to relive it during the trial. #