Ten years ago, in one of the few significant liability reforms to emerge from Washington, D.C. in modern times, Congress provided litigation relief to small-aircraft makers, most notably by cutting off lawsuits filed more than 18 years after an aircraft was sold. As was widely reported, general aviation thereafter enjoyed a substantial recovery from its previous slump, with significant numbers of planes again being manufactured and sold. But trial lawyers, casting around for parties to sue after crashes, simply began naming everyone else in sight: flight instructors, “mechanics, manufacturers of replacement parts, fuel suppliers and airports. Aviation is again in decline.” Frasca Field in the college community of Champaign-Urbana, Ill. has “shut down its flight training, recurrent training and mechanics’ services a year ago because of skyrocketing insurance costs brought on by a lawsuit in which the field itself was found not guilty.

“The case stemmed from the 1996 death of a man who was a passenger in a Piper J-3 Cub that crashed in a cornfield near Thomasboro. Federal Aviation Administrators inspectors found no mechanical problems. The National Transportation Safety Board said the accident was caused by pilot error. Frasca Air Services Owner Rudy Frasca said the final legal defense price tag was about $600,000. ‘We won the case, but we lost the field,’ said Tom Frasca.” Much more here (J. Philip Bloomer, “Liability costs ground Frasca”, Champaign (Ill.) News-Gazette, Jun. 20).

Filed under: aviation