Crash Suit Judge Drops Controller

Walter White, the air traffic controller who guided an Aeromexico jet on its ill-fated approach into Los Angeles last year when it collided with a small private plane over Cerritos, was dismissed Monday as a defendant in the litigation stemming from the crash.

U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon ruled that White cannot be sued because he was acting within the scope of his duties as a government employee.

Kenyon’s ruling still enables plaintiffs in the litigation to argue that White was negligent for failing to warn the Aeromexico pilot of the nearby private craft, which White has claimed did not show up on his radar scope.

White was named in only one of the dozens of lawsuits stemming from the August, 1986, crash.