Schuler v. U.S.

• Decision Date: 03 May 1989
• Docket Number: 87-2170 and 87-2178,87-2143,Nos. 87-2142,s. 87-2142
• Citation: 868 F.2d 195
• Parties: Janice K. SCHULER, Co-Personal Representative of the Estate of Charles F. Schuler, Deceased; Ethelyn M. Wilson, Personal Representative of the Estate of Richard J. Wilson, Deceased, Plaintiffs-Appellees, Cross-Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 195

868 F.2d 195

Janice K. SCHULER, Co-Personal Representative of the Estate of Charles F. Schuler, Deceased; Ethelyn M. Wilson Personal Representative of the Estate of Richard J. Wilson Deceased, Plaintiffs-Appellees, Cross-Appellants, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.

Nos. 87-2142, 87-2143, 87-2170 and 87-2178.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued Dec. 6, 1987.

Decided Feb. 23, 1989.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied May 3, 1989.

Richard L. Clark, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Barbara B. O'Malley (argued), Washington D.C., for defendant-appellant, cross-appellee.

Richard F. Schaden, Kathleen O'Brien Schaden (argued), Schaden, Heldman & Lampert, Denver, Colo., for plaintiffs-appellees, cross-appellants.

Before MARTIN, JONES, and NORRIS, Circuit Judges.

BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., Circuit Judge.

This case involves a crash at Muskegon County Airport in Michigan of a Cessna 401 twin engine, four passenger airplane which developed engine trouble after takeoff. The United States challenges the district court's finding that air traffic controllers negligently handled the return and attempted landing of the impaired Cessna 401, and that this negligence was the proximate cause of the accident, 675 F.Supp. 1088. Based on In Re Air Crash Disaster at Metropolitan Airport, 619 F.Supp. 13 (E.D.Mich.1984), aff'd 782 F.2d 1041 (6th Cir.1985), we reverse the district court.

The entire accident involving the Cessna and the air traffic controllers occurred in the span of 35-40 seconds. In the early summer evening of June 30, 1981, two minutes after takeoff at 6:10:01 pm (6:10 and one second), the pilot, Richard Wilson, radioed air traffic control that he had lost an engine and was returning to the airport. He requested to land on runway 32 "if OK". Prior to Wilson's return to the airport, a multi-engine, turbo prop, Air Force C-130 Hercules transport plane was making practice landings on runway 36, taxiing down runway 14, the "reciprocal or extension" of runway 32, and then taking off on runway 23 again. At 6:10:07, radar controller Ryan gave Wilson visual approach clearance to land on runway 32. At 6:10:09, the C-130 contacted Johnson, the local controller, requesting to do the "same thing". At 6:10:13, Mr. Wilson communicated with Ryan to "get the military off the runway". Two seconds later at 6:10:15, local controller Johnson told the C-130 to make a 180 degree turn and exit runway 14, the extension to runway 32. At 6:10:23, the C-130 responded with "Roger" and proceeded to exit the runway. At 6:10:35, Ryan, the radar controller, gave Wilson landing clearance. At 6:10:42, there was the sound of the emergency locater transmitter indicating that the plane had crashed. The Cessna had banked steeply to the side of the inoperable engine, had stalled and plunged to the ground. The fall from the time of stalling to the moment of impact was approximately 3 to 5 seconds. Upon impact, the Cessna burned and all passengers aboard, including Charles Schuler, were killed. The distance from the crash site to the beginning of the threshold of runway 32 was approximately 1/4 mile.

Janice K. Schuler, personal representative of the estate of Charles F. Schuler, and Ethelyn M. Wilson, personal representative of the estate of Richard J. Wilson, brought a wrongful death action pursuant to the Federal Torts Claims Act arising out of the airplane crash at Muskegon County Airport. The district court found that the defendant United States, acting through its employees, the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Controllers, was 20% negligent with respect to the airplane crash. The court found that the air traffic controllers breached their duty to (1) keep the runway clear and (2) keep Wilson informed of the situation on the ground with regard to the C-130. After Wilson told the air traffic controllers at 6:10:13 to "get the military out of there," air traffic control made no response to Wilson until 6:10:35 when radar controller Ryan gave Wilson landing clearance. The court found that the air traffic controllers were obligated to communicate to Wilson the position of the C-130; that it was inappropriate to make no response whatsoever. The court found that such negligence was a proximate cause of the death of Schuler and Wilson. The court stated that the C-130 on the runway caused Mr. Wilson "to delay and that delay caused him to overshoot the runway, which required him either to bank back to land on runway 32 or to exercise another option of attempting to land on runway 23." Finally, the court found that Wilson, the owner and pilot of the plane was 80% negligent with respect to the crash and that such negligence was a proximate cause of the deaths of Schuler and Wilson.

On appeal, the United States argues there was no duty owed to Schuler and Wilson, but even assuming that such a duty did exist, breach of that duty was not the direct and proximate cause of their death.

The air traffic controllers clearly did not breach their duty to keep the runway clear. The landing runway was not required to be free of obstruction until the Cessna crossed the threshold. In busy airports, a runway is always obstructed for part of the time that another airplane is approaching the runway. However, at the point where the arriving airplane crosses the landing threshold, the obstruction must be cleared. Air Traffic Control Handbook, 7110.65B, paragraphs 902, 1120b(3), and 1122. Radar controller Ryan complied precisely with the air traffic control handbook procedures by clearing Wilson to return to the airport, but withheld the issuing of clearance to land until he was able to determine that the C-130 would be clear of the runway at the time the Cessna crossed the landing threshold. There was no duty that the runway be clear at the time that the approach clearance was issued. There was testimony that the runway would have been clear when the Cessna crossed the threshold based on the calculations of the movements of the Cessna and the C-130. The C-130 made its 180 degree turn at the far northern end of runway 32. The Cessna crashed approximately one-quarter mile short of the threshold of runway 32. The length of runway 32 was 2 1/2 times as long as the distance needed to land the Cessna safely. From the point where the Cessna went out of control, it was 11 seconds flying time to the runway threshold. If the Cessna had not crashed, it would have crossed the runway threshold at 6:10:50. The C-130 would have been completely clear of the runway at that time. Given the position of the C-130, the length of the runway, and the Cessna's distance from the threshold, no potential conflict existed between the Cessna and the C-130 except in the mind of Wilson, the pilot. See Air Traffic Control Handbook, 7110.65B, paragraph 796(c).

Neither Ryan nor Johnson could have acted any quicker or more correctly than they did in the 14 second time period...