Judge Drops Third Pilot From Cerritos Crash Suits

A federal judge Wednesday dismissed the pilot of a third plane as a defendant in more than two dozen lawsuits relating to the collision of an Aeromexico jetliner and a private plane over Cerritos two years ago that killed 82 people, including 15 on the ground.

U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon in Los Angeles ruled that Roland Paul Furman of Fullerton did not contribute to the mid-air crash on Aug. 31, 1986, when he radioed the air traffic controller guiding the ill-fated jetliner about the time of the collision.

Kenyon based his decision on an analysis of a computer radar tape, which showed that the radio communication between Furman and Los Angeles International Airport controller Walter White took place 15 seconds after the midair collision, not a few seconds before the crash, as had first been thought.

The analysis, conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board in a yearlong review of the crash, also found that Furman’s private plane was “a good 10 miles” from where the Aeromexico jetliner and the small plane collided, said Furman’s lawyer, Stephen L. Nelson of Los Angeles.

Created No Risk

The lawsuits filed by survivors of many of those who died in the crash had contended that Furman had contributed to the crash by distracting White’s attention from the DC-9 jetliner when it was about to collide with a single-engine Piper Archer.

But since the accident already had happened at the time of Furman’s conversation with the controller, Kenyon concluded in his written ruling that the pilot created no risk by making radio contact with the controller for instructions.

Kenyon’s ruling excludes Furman from the 25 lawsuits on file at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles by family members of the Aeromexico disaster victims who are seeking compensation and damages.

It does not, however, exclude Furman from four additional Aeromexico cases which have been filed in Superior Court. Nelson said he planned to quickly submit a request to have his client removed from those cases, too, on the basis of the evidence.

Furman, an aerospace company engineer, declined to comment, as he has done since the crash. Nelson said Furman had been through a great ordeal because people had wrongfully assumed that he was in part responsible for the crash.

“It was a conclusion that was jumped to, and I won’t say by whom,” Nelson said.

Shortly after the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration accused Furman of violating the restricted airspace surrounding Los Angeles International Airport and tried to suspend his pilot’s license for 180 days.

Steadfastly maintaining that he was 100 feet below the 2,500-foot floor of the Terminal Control Area, Furman later struck a deal with the FAA in which he agreed to surrender his license for 60 days in exchange for not admitting any guilt, Nelson said. Only small planes with permission from air traffic controllers are permitted to enter the restricted area used by commercial jets on approach to the airport.

The Piper Archer that collided with the Aeromexico jet had entered the protected airspace at the time of the accident, federal investigators found.