FAA, Private Pilot Blamed in Cerritos Crash Fatal to 82 : Aeromexico Absolved of Any Fault
A federal court jury today found the Federal Aviation Administration and the pilot of a small plane equally responsible for the 1986 collision of an Aeromexico airliner and the small plane that killed 82 people.
The jury absolved Aeromexico from any blame for the collision over Cerritos. The panel found negligence by the FAA and private pilot William Kramer and said they were responsible for the crash in equal measure.
The jury’s task was to determine responsibility. The verdict is binding on Kramer’s estate, but its findings on Aeromexico and the FAA are advisory to U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon, who was to make his decision on their portion of responsibility later in the day.
Damages will be decided at later trials or by settlement.
Attorney Franklin Silane, representing Aeromexico, said he felt that the case was not an indictment of air traffic safety in Los Angeles.
“‘Overall, the traffic is safe in Los Angeles and the traffic controllers are good at the job. A mistake was made on that day.”
Both Planes Plunged
The collision occurred in clear skies Aug. 31, 1986, as the Aeromexico DC-9, with 64 people aboard, was approaching Los Angeles International Airport.
Kramer, with his wife and a daughter as passengers, was flying a single-engine Piper that hit the jet’s tail and sent both aircraft plunging into the ground.
All aboard both planes and 15 people on the ground in suburban Cerritos were killed.
FAA air traffic controller Walter White, who was guiding the DC-9 to the airport, maintained that the Piper did not appear on his radar screen. However, data tapes from the radar system did record the Piper’s flight.
During the trial expert witnesses testified that Kramer’s plane was visible on the radar screen during 62 of 64 radar sweeps in the final minutes before the 11:52 a.m. collision in controlled airspace.
Medical evidence was presented that suggested Kramer was disabled by a heart attack before the collision.
Controllers ‘Too Casual’
Some of the jurors, interviewed later, said they believed that Kramer violated the airport’s restricted airspace, which is called the Terminal Control Area, when he wandered into it and that air traffic controllers failed to halt traffic when they realized what had happened.
One of the jurors, Valorie Mitzel of Anaheim, said she felt that air traffic controllers were “too casual” about their responsibilities and also faulted supervisors for failing to investigate properly after the accident.
She said she felt the radar scope on which the controller said he never saw the small plane should have been deactivated immediately and checked, which she said was not done.
“I was very disturbed by what happened after,” she said. “If a man says something wasn’t on the scope, why isn’t it checked? Generally they were too casual.”
The jurors said they rejected the claim that Kramer may have suffered a heart attack. They said there was insufficient evidence to prove this to them.
Mitzel said she believed the Aeromexico pilot and co-pilot were acting properly and probably did not see the small plane.
