Airline says pilot’s words mean ‘zero’

Karen S. Kim

AIRPORT DISTRICT -- Though transcripts released by the National

Transportation Safety Board this week reveal that the pilot of Southwest

Airlines Flight 1455 blamed himself for the crash at

Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport in March 2000, Southwest officials said

the pilot’s utterings mean “zero.”

“That was probably a pretty emotional time for him, and people say

things when the situation is as traumatic as that one was,” Southwest

Airlines Spokesman Ed Stewart said. “I’m sure he regrets saying it.”

The pilot’s words were recorded in the cockpit minutes after the jet

skidded off the runway at the airport, crashed through a perimeter fence

and came to rest on Hollywood Way just 39 feet from a Chevron gas

station.

“My fault ... my fault,” Capt. Howard Peterson said after the plane

came to a stop, according to the transcripts.

Seconds later, Peterson said to himself, “Well, there goes my career

... You stupid [expletive].”

The transcripts also reveal that the pilots heard an alert at 6:10

p.m., one minute before the jet touched down on the runway, telling them

to “pull up,” to which Peterson answered, “That’s all right.”

The NTSB is continuing its investigation of the crash.

Southwest Airlines was hit with about two dozen lawsuits after the

crash that charge the company with negligence and seek damages for

physical and emotional injuries.

Several of the lawsuits also charge the pilots with negligence.

Attorney Paul Hedlund, whose four clients have filed suit against the

airline and cockpit crew, said the transcript from the cockpit recorder

is a major boost to his clients’ cases.

“It’s cinched by an admission by the pilot in command,” Hedlund said.

“When you have a cockpit voice recorder indicating that it’s his fault,

you don’t have to worry about whether the tower possibly gave him bad

information or the wind shifted. This is a case of purely pilot error,

and most cases are not.”

Hedlund said his clients are still negotiating with Southwest Airlines

over their claims.

Southwest attorneys, who also represent the pilots, said in May that

the airline is not contesting the negligence charges and will only be

negotiating the amount of damages.