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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Air-Traffic Controllers Not To Blame For 2004 Crash Of Hendrick Plane
A U.S. District Court judge ruled Wednesday that air-traffic controllers were not responsible for the plane crash that killed 10 people...
Bob Pockrass  | http://www.scenedaily.com  |  Posted September 09, 2010   Charlotte, NC
NASCAR Sprint Cup team owner Rick Hendrick. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
A U.S. District Court judge ruled Wednesday that air-traffic controllers were not responsible for the Hendrick Motorsports plane crash that killed 10 people, including four members of team owner Rick Hendrick’s family, on the way to a Sprint Cup race at Martinsville in October 2004.

The judge’s ruling came about 14 months after the conclusion of a non-jury trial in Winston Salem, N.C., that covered five lawsuits. Linda Turner (widow of HMS general manager Jeff Turner) and Dianne Dorton (widow of HMS engine builder Randy Dorton) had sought money from the government, as did Hendrick Motorsports for the destruction of its plane and for the government to contribute to the settlements with the families of victims Scott Lathram (a pilot for Cup driver Tony Stewart who was a passenger on the plane) and DuPont executive Joe Jackson.

The crash resulted when the Hendrick pilots, who had delayed the flight by 86 minutes because of the weather, became disoriented and began their landing five miles past where they should have at Martinsville/Blue Ridge Airport.

A witness said he saw the plane about 1,500 feet in the air two miles past the airport and about three miles from the start of the runway approach. The pilots, who never lowered the plane’s landing gear, continued to fly for at least another minute before executing the mandated missed approach procedure, which they conducted for two miles without making the mandatory right-hand turn, and slammed into Bull Mountain about 27 minutes before the start of the race.

Blaming pilots Richard Tracy and Elizabeth Morrison, Judge Thomas Schroeder awarded nothing to the widows or Hendrick. The 98-page ruling, issued Wednesday, can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

“Had the pilots executed a federally-mandated missed approach (even without the required climbing right turn) after breaking through the clouds and not finding Runway 30, this accident likely would not have occurred,” the judge wrote. “The court finds, therefore, that the pilots’ decision to continue flying in violation of their federally-mandated requirement to execute a missed approach at a point when no reasonably prudent pilot would refuse to immediately do so, and then to execute a missed approach without the federally-mandated climbing right turn, was highly extraordinary and constituted a new effective cause that operated independently of any other assumed act or omission by air traffic controllers.

“Thus, the extraordinary negligence of the pilots after breaking through the clouds superseded any negligence that Plaintiffs argue was committed by the United States and was the sole legal cause of the accident.”

Hendrick and the widows believe the government shares some of the responsibility for the actions of the air-traffic controllers. Dorton’s complaint alleged that the air-traffic controllers did not attempt to contact the pilots even though the plane was descending at 2,500 feet above the end of the runway and continued toward the mountain for more than four minutes until the crash. Hendrick alleged in court documents that the controllers ignored a visual and audible alarm specifically designed to warn them that the aircraft was dangerously close to terrain.

The judge ruled that those actions did not constitute negligence by the air-traffic controllers. And even if they did, pilots Tracy and Morrison should have realized they had missed the airport once they broke through the clouds. According to weather reports, their vision should have been at least two miles and possibly as far as five miles at that time, the judge ruled, and they should have taken measures when they didn’t see the airport. Instead, they continued until they were nearly seven miles past the airport.

“This was a tragic accident caused by a series of missteps by the flight crew. … The only reasonable explanation is that the crew was willing to continue to fly beyond the perceived missed approach point in the hopes of avoiding being late for the 1:00 p.m. NASCAR race,” Schroeder wrote in his opinion.

The air-traffic controllers, based at the Greensboro airport as the Martinsville airport does not have any, were not negligent because the pilots had decided to land using visual flight rules – without assistance from controllers – and none of their actions following that decision were unreasonable, the judge ruled.
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Schroeder wrote that even though the plane was above the minimum altitude at certain points, it would not be unreasonable to think that the turboprop plane could land safely.

The warnings only lasted five seconds and are common when planes descend at that landing strip. The air-traffic controller responsible for the Hendrick plane was busy with a Northwest flight at the time and did not notice the warning. Three seconds before the air-traffic controller was done with the Northwest flight, the low altitude alert ended on the radar so even if the controller had noticed the alarm, he likely would not have taken any action.

“The court finds that a reasonable controller who had no duty to (and did not) observe [the plane’s] descent path after the frequency change and who found the aircraft data … would have lacked sufficient information to mandate a safety alert to the aircraft,” the judge wrote.

While the judge was critical of the pilots, he said his decision did not contradict a jury, which in an earlier trial had determined that the pilots were not willfully and recklessly negligent in the crash and therefore their estates did not owe any of the victims money.

In addition to the pilots, Dorton, Turner, Jackson and Lathram, killed in the crash were Rick Hendrick’s son, Ricky, Hendrick’s brother, John, and John’s daughters Kimberly and Jennifer.

There was no immediate comment on the ruling from Dorton’s attorney. When contacted, a Hendrick Motorsports spokesperson declined comment.

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