In re Air Crash at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport
| Decision Date | 01 September 1989 |
| Docket Number | CA4-87-139-K.,MDL No. 657. No. CA4-87-060-K |
| Citation | 720 F. Supp. 1258 |
| Parties | In re AIR CRASH AT DALLAS/FORT WORTH AIRPORT ON AUGUST 2, 1985. Kathleen CONNORS, et al. v. UNITED STATES of America. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Texas |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
John Martin, Thompson & Knight, Dallas, Tex., for Delta Air Lines.
Alan Wilson, Law, Snakard & Gambill, Fort Worth, Tex., for Mrs. Connors.
John Herrick, Ft. Worth, Tex., for Mrs. Nassick.
Kathlynn G. Fadely, Asst. Director, Aviation, Douglas Coleman, Roy W. Krieger, Trial Attys., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Mark W. Bury, Trial Atty., F.A.A., and M. Timothy Conner, Chief, Gen. Litigation Div., U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Washington, D.C., for defendant U.S.
This lawsuit1 arises out of an airplane crash that occurred at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport ("DFW") on August 2, 1985. At the time of the accident, the aircraft, a Lockheed L-1011-385-1, was cleared for an ILS approach2 to Runway 17 Left (17L). The flight, identified as Delta Flight 191 (hereinafter DL 191) originated in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and was bound for Los Angeles, California, with an intermediate stop at DFW. It was equipped with a Bendix model RDR-1F monochromatic weather radar system.
At the time of the crash there were one hundred sixty-three (163) people on board—one hundred fifty-two (152) passengers and eleven (11) crew members. As a result of the crash, one hundred thirty-seven (137) people were killed—one hundred twenty-eight (128) passengers, eight (8) crew members, including the Captain, First Officer and Second Officer, and one (1) person on the ground.
One hundred eighty-two (182) claims were made and one hundred fifteen (115) lawsuits3 were filed against Delta Air Lines, Inc. ("Delta") as a result of the crash of DL 191.4
In a separate action, Kathleen E. Connors, widow of the pilot Edward N. Connors ("Captain Conners"), and Jean R. Nassick, widow of the Second Officer Nick Nassick, sued the United States individually and on behalf of the statutory beneficiaries under the Texas Wrongful Death Act5 and on behalf of the estates of Connors and Nassick under the provisions of the Texas Survivors Act.6 These two suits were consolidated with Delta's suit by Order of the Court. Delta joined as a Plaintiff in these suits against the United States of America alleging negligence on the part of the employees of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Weather Service to establish liability and to recoup damages suffered by Delta as a result of the crash. These damages include money paid pursuant to settlements of personal injury and death claims7 and judgments against it, as well as for the value of the aircraft.
On September 9, 1986, the Court granted leave to Delta to file a third-party complaint in all cases in which it had been named as a defendant. Once the consolidated pre-trial proceedings mandated by order of the Judicial Panel on Multi-District litigation was completed, Delta's third-party claims were bifurcated from all individual Plaintiff's cases. This Court retained jurisdiction over all the third-party claims and tried those claims with the original suit filed by Mrs. Conners, on the issue of liability alone.
At the conclusion of this trial it was estimated that the total value of claims paid and those still pending would amount to between one hundred fifty million ($150,000,000.00) and two hundred million ($200,- 000,000.00) dollars, including the loss of the L-1011 aircraft, valued at twenty-four million seven hundred thousand ($24,700,000.00) dollars.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is one of the largest in area and busiest with respect to landings and takeoffs in the United States. There are four principal runways that run north and south.8 These runways are 11,388 feet in length and have a heading of 173 degrees. They are numbered according to their magnetic bearing: 17L, 17R, 18L, and 18R.9 The innermost runways, 17R and 18L, are approximately one mile apart. The Tower, terminals, hotels, and other buildings are located between the innermost runways.
There are four points that are considered gateways to the airport. Each point, or "corner post," is about 35 miles from the ends of the runways. The corner posts are known as Blue Ridge (northeast), Scurry (southeast), Acton (southwest), and Bridgeport (northwest). Depending on the direction of arrival, planes are brought over these corner posts by the Air Route Traffic Control Center ("ARTCC") and turned over to the Terminal Radar Approach Control ("Tracon") for landing alignment and sequencing. Generally, planes coming in from the west use Acton or Bridgeport and land on runways 18L or 18R, and planes coming in from the east use Blue Ridge or Scurry and land on 17L or 17R.
In 1958, Congress passed the Federal Aviation Act to centralize in a single entity, the Federal Aviation Administration, the authority to make rules and regulations concerning air safety and to develop a system for the safe and efficient use of the National Airspace. In 1966, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was placed in the Department of Transportation.
Pursuant to its responsibilities under the Act, the FAA divided the continental United States and the airspace above into twenty (20) contiguous regions. Within each region is an Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC). The Fort Worth ARTCC covers parts of five (5) states: Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and New Mexico.
(1) The Air Route Traffic Control Center
The ARTCC is staffed by Air Traffic Controllers10 who utilize radar and radio communications to coordinate and regulate the flights of all airborne craft within the region. The radar and communications systems are extremely elaborate and sophisticated.11 Also assigned to the ARTCC is the Central Weather Service Unit ("CWSU") which aids the controllers in the dissemination of weather information to pilots in the region.
(2) Tracon
ARTCC controllers are responsible for bringing the planes bound for DFW to a corner post approximately thirty-five (35) miles from the airport, at which point the planes are turned over to the Tracon controllers. These controllers are located on the ground floor of the Tower at DFW. It is their responsibility to sequence, or align and space, the planes in an orderly fashion for landing. Tracon then turns the planes over to the Tower controllers as they begin their final approach seven (7) to ten (10) miles from touchdown or landing on the assigned runway.
(3) The Tower
Controllers in the Tower use radar, visual sightings, and verbal communication to provide air traffic control services and weather information to aircraft arriving at and departing from DFW. Once an airplane is "passed off" from Tracon to the Tower, the tower controller directs the final approach, landing, and taxi. The Tower is located in the area between runways 17R and 18L and is about equal distance (approximately one mile) from either end of the runways.
After the Weather Bureau was abolished in 1965, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was created as the administrative head of the various weather agencies and transferred with other weather related entities to the Department of Commerce. The organizational name of the Weather Bureau was changed to the National Weather Service ("NWS"). 15 U.S.C. § 311, et seq.
The NWS provides the aviation community with a variety of services from a number of different facilities. These services include general forecasting, issuance of warnings and advisories, consultations, and briefings.12 NWS personnel do not communicate with pilots. Their role for aviation interests is to create weather information products for relay to FAA facilities, Air Traffic Controllers, airlines, and other such users.
Following an air crash in 1977, the National Transportation Safety Board ("NTSB") recommended to the FAA that immediate action be taken for the development and implementation of a system for controllers to relay severe thunderstorm and tornado bulletins to aircraft in an airport terminal area. The FAA was urged to:
formulate rules and procedures for the timely dissemination by air traffic controllers of all available severe weather information to inbound and outbound flight crews in the terminal area.13
Following this pronouncement, the Department of Transportation/FAA and the NOAA/NWS entered into an agreement in 198014 whereby the NWS would operate CWSU's at each ARTCC. In order to implement this agreement for the Fort Worth Center, the NWS installed a radar facility at Stephenville, Texas ("SEP"), 72 miles from DFW Airport. The CWSU is located in the ARTCC building just south of DFW. The CWSU receives its radar image from SEP. The image received by CWSU is two minutes old due to the time it takes for the information to be translated into digital form, transmitted by phone lines, and retranslated.
The primary function of the CWSU at Fort Worth ARTCC is to provide weather information to air traffic controllers and staff, including ATC's in the ARTCC, Tracon, and Tower. The CWSU meteorologists do not communicate with the pilots, but pass the weather information to the ATC's in the form of briefings and forecasts. After the information is received from the meteorologist or weather coordinator, the ATC's disseminate it to the pilots.
The Weather Coordinator ("WC") functions as an interface between the NWS meteorologist and the Air Traffic Controllers. The WC is primarily responsible for the inter/intrafacility disseminations of Sigmets,15 CWA's16 and urgent Pireps.17 WC's also provide assistance in the collection and dissemination of other significant weather information.
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...reject that clearance, to inform ATC, and request a new clearance. Worthington, 807 F.Supp. at 1568; In re Air Crash At Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, 720 F.Supp. 1258, 1290 (N.D.Tex.1989), aff'd, 919 F.2d 1079 (5th Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Connors v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 112 S.Ct. ......
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...Ltd., 533 N.Y.S.2d 942 (1988), §21.401 Conner v. State, 225 Md. 543, 171 A.2d 699, 86 A.L.R.2d 892 (1961), §5.407 Connors v. U.S., 720 F.Supp. 1258 (N.D.Tex. 1989), §36.304 Connor v. State, 171 A.2d 699, 225 Md. 543, 86 A.L.R.2d 892, cert. denied , 82 S.Ct. 186, 368 U.S. 906, 7 L.Ed.2d 100 ......
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...Ltd., 533 N.Y.S.2d 942 (1988), §21.401 Conner v. State, 225 Md. 543, 171 A.2d 699, 86 A.L.R.2d 892 (1961), §5.407 Connors v. U.S., 720 F.Supp. 1258 (N.D.Tex. 1989), §36.304 Connor v. State, 171 A.2d 699, 225 Md. 543, 86 A.L.R.2d 892, cert. denied , 82 S.Ct. 186, 368 U.S. 906, 7 L.Ed.2d 100 ......
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Pretrial preparation
...Co. , 538 F.2d 304 (10th Cir. 1976). • Computer reconstructions of an accident or event. In re Air Crash at Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport , 720 F.Supp. 1258 (N.D. Tex. 1989). • Computer data printouts. FRE 803(6), (8), (9); Brown v. A.S.D. , 519 F.Supp. 1096 (S.D. Ohio 1981). • Crash tests. Peop......