Nachtsheim v. Beech Aircraft Corp.

• Decision Date: 23 June 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-1155,87-1155
• Citation: 847 F.2d 1261
• Parties: 25 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1153 Edward E. NACHTSHEIM, Personal Representative of the Estate of William W. Steil, and Production Tool Corporation, a domestic corporation, Plaintiffs- Appellants, v. BEECH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION, a Delaware corporation, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1261

847 F.2d 1261

25 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 1153

Edward E. NACHTSHEIM, Personal Representative of the Estate of William W. Steil, and Production Tool Corporation, a domestic corporation Plaintiffs- Appellants, v. BEECH AIRCRAFT CORPORATION, a Delaware corporation Defendant-Appellee.

No. 87-1155.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Nov. 5, 1987.

Decided May 26, 1988.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied June 23, 1988.

Ronald M. Wawrzyn, Foley & Lardner, Milwaukee, Wis., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Michael R. Wherry, Mulcahy & Wherry, S.C., Milwaukee, Wis., for defendant-appellee.

Before CUMMINGS, RIPPLE and MANION, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiffs, Edward E. Nachtsheim and Production Tool Corporation (Production Tool), brought this products liability action against the defendant, Beech Aircraft Corporation (Beech). Jurisdiction was based on diversity of citizenship, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1332. The suit arose from an aircraft accident in which the deceased, William W. Steil, was killed. Mr. Steil was the President of Production Tool. He was piloting a company aircraft on January 8, 1978 when the plane crashed near Tylertown, Mississippi.

The case was tried to a jury on theories of negligence, strict liability, and failure to warn. Mr. Steil's estate sought damages for wrongful death; Production Tool sought damages for the value of the aircraft. After a two-week trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant. The district court entered judgment in accordance with the verdict and subsequently denied the plaintiffs' motion for a new trial.

In this appeal, the plaintiffs challenge under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 61 a number of the district court's evidentiary rulings. ¹ After reviewing the record and considering each of the challenged rulings, we conclude that there is no basis for granting the requested relief. We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court.

I Background

A. The Crash

On the afternoon of January 8, 1978, Mr. Steil prepared to fly himself and three passengers from New Orleans, Louisiana to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Shortly before taking off, he obtained a weather briefing from the New Orleans Flight Service Station. The Flight Service Station informed him that moderate to severe turbulence could be expected between altitudes of 12,000 and 25,000 feet over Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. R.175 at 93. The Flight Service Station also mentioned the presence of moderate rime icing ² with mixed freezing drizzle throughout his planned route of flight, as well as ice pellets on the ground in the area of Jackson, Mississippi. Id. at 93-94.

The Steil plane took off from New Orleans at 3:44 p.m. Immediately after takeoff, the airplane began climbing from an initial altitude of 2,000 feet to an altitude of 4,000 feet. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Steil received clearance to climb to 8,000 feet. Id. at 95. At approximately 4:12 p.m., Mr. Steil contacted the Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center (Houston Center) and indicated that he was at 7,000 feet and beginning to pick up ice. He requested clearance to ascend over the clouds. Id. at 96. Houston Center cleared the Steil craft to an altitude of 11,000 feet, and Mr. Steil acknowledged the clearance. Id. at 97. Two minutes later, Houston Center reported that it had lost the airplane on radar. About this time, an eyewitness on the ground sighted the airplane coming out of the clouds. Moments later, the airplane crashed into a forested area, disintegrated and burned. There were no survivors.

B. The Investigation

The National Safety Transportation Board (NTSB) conducted an investigation of the crash. Several witnesses to the crash were interviewed. The NTSB accident report summarized the statements of these witnesses:

Witnesses reported, in essence, that the engines or engine were making a surging or cyclic up and down type sound. The sound was heard before the aircraft came into view below the clouds and continued until the impact sound. The aircraft came out of the overcast in a nosedown wing level dive of about 45 degrees. A steep left bank was observed with the aircraft still descending. The aircraft disappeared behind trees still moving at a high speed before it was heard crashing through trees. The sound of an explosion was heard after the sound of impact with trees.

An eye witness [sic] located about 200 yards southwest of the crash site estimated the cloud ceiling at about 1200-1400 feet and a strong gusty west wind. Prior to the accident it was hazy and about 30-45 minutes after the accident, a light freezing rain started. The weather later cleared from the west and was clear at the accident scene by nightfall.

Plaintiffs' Ex. 1-Defendant's Ex. 580 at 14. The NTSB report did not reach any conclusion as to the cause of the crash. However, a separate report filed by a Beech employee who was part of the NTSB investigating team concluded that: "The aircraft lost control due to either ice or pilot inattention. I believe pilot inattention was the problem, because the aircraft had deicing equipment and only light icing was reported." Plaintiffs' Ex. 5-Defendant's Ex. 581 at 10.

C. The Aircraft

The Steil aircraft was a Beech Baron 58P. It was sold by Beech to Hartzog Aviation in Rockford, Illinois in March 1976. Hartzog used the airplane as a demonstrator during 1976 and 1977 and subsequently sold it to Production Tool. At the time of the sale, the plane had accumulated 174 hours of flight time. R.175 at 90-91. All of the maintenance work done on the aircraft while it was owned by Production Tool was done by Hartzog which was not a party to the action. R.183 at 259.

The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) has certified the Baron 58P for flight into known icing conditions when equipped according to the manufacturer's pilot's operating handbook and the FAA approved airplane flight manual. The Steil plane was properly equipped when Production Tool purchased it in March 1977. R.175 at 98. Nevertheless, the plaintiffs proceeded at trial on the theory that the design of the Baron 58P rendered it unsafe for flight in icing conditions. This theory centered on the elevator, a flight control mechanism located at the rear of the plane. The elevator is a movable control surface which is attached to the fixed, horizontal portion of the tail called the stabilizer. The gap between the elevator and the horizontal stabilizer is called the cove gap. Id. at 184-87. The position of the elevator controls the rise or fall of the nose of the plane in relation to the tail, otherwise known as the plane's pitch. R.180 at 56.

The Baron 58P has a pointed elevator horn which is partially shielded from the airstream by the stabilizer portion of the tail. However, when the elevator is moved, its leading edge protrudes from its streamlined position behind the stabilizer. It is then exposed to the airstream. Appellants' Br. at 9. By way of contrast, this design differs from two alternative elevator systems found in other aircraft and described respectively as a classic shielded and a classic unshielded configuration.

Defendant's Ex. 663.

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINS TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

D. The Trial

The plaintiffs' theory of the case was presented at trial primarily by their expert witness, Professor Donald Kennedy. Professor Kennedy testified that the Steil airplane had stalled. ³ When an aircraft stalls, the pilot must use the elevator to lower the nose and thereby restore the proper airflow. According to Professor Kennedy, Mr. Steil was unable to recover from the stall because ice had accumulated in the cove gap due to the elevator's exposure to the airstream. The ice buildup prevented Mr. Steil from using the elevator to regain pitch control. R.180 at 56. In short, Professor Kennedy testified that, in his opinion, the primary cause of the Steil crash was a frozen elevator. Id. at 78. He concluded that, because the tail section design of the Beech Baron 58P allows the elevator to become frozen in icing conditions, it is unreasonably dangerous. Additionally, he concluded that the Steil accident could have been prevented had Beech warned Mr. Steil of methods of preventing the elevator from jamming with ice. R.181 at 81.

Beech contended at trial that the crash was the result of pilot error. Beech agreed with Professor Kennedy that Mr. Steil had stalled the aircraft at about 8,000 feet while attempting to climb to 11,000 feet. See R.180 at 55a. However, Beech disagreed about what happened after the stall. According to one of Beech's chief engineers, the Baron 58P cannot be stalled without a movable elevator because the airplane cannot sufficiently change its angle of attack to occasion the stall. R.175 at 168. Beech thus contended that the crash was not the result of a frozen elevator. Rather, Beech argued that Mr. Steil became spatially disoriented following his loss of control of the airplane. Spatial disorientation is a phenomenon in which a pilot becomes confused as to the actual altitude of his aircraft in relation to the earth by reason of the plane's immersion in the clouds. "When spatially disoriented it is very common for a pilot to be in a turn and actually not know it. Upon exiting the clouds, the pilot usually experiences nystagmus and severe confusion whereby he is unable to clearly focus on the instruments." Appellee's Br. at 9 (citations omitted). Beech maintained that it was because of this spatial disorientation, and not because of a frozen elevator, that Mr. Steil was unable to recover from the stall.

II Standard of Review

The plaintiffs' attack on the district court's judgment is predicated upon their assertion that the court made several erroneous evidentiary rulings during the course of the trial. ⁴ Accordingly, we are not concerned with whether the record supports the verdict. See Jackson v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 788 F.2d 1070, 1075 (5th Cir.1986). Rather, our...