Bandy v. United States

492 F. Supp. 13, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20393
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Tennessee
DecidedJune 29, 1978
DocketNo. C-75-388
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 492 F. Supp. 13 (Bandy v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bandy v. United States, 492 F. Supp. 13, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20393 (W.D. Tenn. 1978).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

WELLFORD, District Judge.

This action against the United States for the allegedly wrongful death of the pilot and sole occupant of a single-engine Piper Arrow aircraft arises under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2671, et seq. Jurisdiction is premised on 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b).

The pilot, plaintiff’s decedent, David C. Bandy, died in the crash of the aircraft at approximately 12:13 p. m.1 on January 8, 1974, approximately one-half mile from runway 15L (left) at Thompson Field in Jackson, Mississippi. Willie Sheeks Bandy, individually and as Administratrix of the Estate of David C. Bandy, brings this suit against the United States government alleging that her husband’s death was the result of the negligence of air traffic controllers and tower personnel at Thompson Field. The action was tried to the Court on November 14 through 17, 1977.

[15]*15FINDINGS OF FACT

Bandy, who was 36 years of age, departed from Memphis International Airport at approximately 10:30 a. m. on January 8, 1974, in an aircraft, No. N859AP, owned by the Don Horn Company of Memphis. His initial destination was Hawkins Field, a field in close proximity to Thompson Field, Jackson, Mississippi. For reasons not disclosed by the proof, Bandy did not land at Hawkins Field. He made a missed approach at Campbell Field, a field approximately five miles north of Thompson Field, and subsequently crashed at or near Thompson Field, while making an instrument landing system approach. Evidence from the autopsy performed following Bandy’s death suggested no cause of death other than the plane crash.

Earlier on the morning of his departure, Bandy telephoned the flight service station (FSS)2 at Memphis. The flight service specialist on duty advised Bandy prior to 10:00 a. m. of the weather that he could expect from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi, and the Jackson terminal weather to be expected on his arrival. Occasional instrument flight rules (IFR) weather conditions were expected along Bandy’s route of flight and in the Jackson area. The specialist further advised Bandy that the Jackson area weather was expected to deteriorate from the visual flight rules (VFR) weather existing at the time of the briefing. The reports indicated imbedded thunderstorms occasionally forming in short lines in Mississippi south of a line stretching from Jackson to Meridian and moderate icing to be expected in clouds between 5,000 and 20,000 feet over Memphis, with the icing occurring at higher altitudes to the south. Weather conditions to the south and west of Jackson, showed poor visibilities and low ceilings. The flight service specialist at Memphis also advised Bandy that Jackson would have similarly poor weather later in the day. After the second briefing from the flight service specialist, Bandy filed his IFR flight plan to Hawkins Field in Jackson. The flight plan indicated that Bandy estimated his flight time to Hawkins Field to be one hour and twenty minutes with four hours of fuel aboard.

Bandy had been a military air traffic controller for four years, but had not flown actively for several years prior to 1974. Just three months before the accident, Bandy had been hired by the Don Horn Company to sell aviation instruments and machinery. He had been requalified to fly under instrument flight rules for about sixty days prior to January 8,1974. His own log books show that he had flown only 4.7 hours of actual instrument time in the previous four years, all of that in the last sixty days of 1973 and early 1974, principally during good weather conditions. He had, however, additional unlogged airtime in this period, according to information in the accident report.

At all times pertinent to the matters herein, the air traffic controllers and tower personnel at Thompson Field, were agents, servants and employees of the United States government and were acting in the scope and course of their employment with the United States government.

At approximately 11:42 a. m., N859AP arrived at Vaughan intersection at a geographical position within twenty-three miles north of Bruce Campbell Field, another airport in Jackson, Mississippi. At 11:45 a. m., the FAA controller at Jackson Approach Control gave Bandy a special weather advisory, informing him that he would “encounter moderate to heavy rain about four or five miles north of the VOR (Jackson VOR) and it extends south of Campbell Field, and there are some thunderstorms in the area.”3 At 11:49 a. m., Bandy was [16]*16cleared through two-way radio communications for an instrument approach to Campbell Field using the Jackson VOR. The air traffic controller at the AR — 1 position at Thompson Field, advised Bandy to turn left on a heading of 170 and cleared him for a VOR approach to Campbell Field. These instructions from the controller at the AR — 1 position were acknowledged by Bandy. Again, at 11:52 a. m., the FAA controller advised Bandy of the local weather, stating that the “Jackson weather [is] now measured ceiling two hundred [feet] overcast, visibility three quarters of a mile, thunderstorm, light rain showers, [and] fog.” Approximately six minutes later, through the use of his air traffic control radar, the radar approach controller was able to discern and volunteered to Bandy that N859AP was on the western edge of the runway at Campbell Field. Immediately thereafter Bandy informed the controller that he was commencing a missed approach.4 The controller then asked for Bandy’s intentions. In response to this inquiry, Bandy requested advice as to the Jackson weather:

“Uh, Roger, what’s, is Jackson still, uh, reporting like you said?”

to which the traffic controller at position AR-1 advised:

“Uh, measured two hundred, overcast, visibility down to one half mile now, the R V, runway visual range, one five left is more than six thousand.”

Following this communication, traffic controller AR-1 issued instructions to Bandy in an attempt to vector him into an instrument landing system approach at Thompson Field at Jackson. This instrument landing system approach (ILS) to Thompson Field was more precise than the non-precision VOR approach to Campbell Field, permitting a pilot using both glide path and precise azimuthal information to descend safely to two hundred feet above the ground (AGL) in one-half mile visibility before seeing the runway threshold. The VOR approach to Campbell Field, on the other hand, permitted a descent only to five hundred feet AGL with one mile visibility. The ILS approach, furthermore, provided a means of alignment directly with the runway center line. Bandy also asked for and was provided with radar directional assistance (vectoring) to the final approach course for the ILS to runway 15L at Thompson Field.

There were significant, adverse weather conditions existing prior to and during the time which Bandy was attempting to make his instrument landing system approach into Thompson Field, which the FAA personnel on duty at the Jackson tower, Thompson Field, as well as Bandy himself, knew or in the exercise of that degree of care and skill expected and required of them should have known.

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Related

Texasgulf Inc. v. Colt Electronics Co.
615 F. Supp. 648 (S.D. New York, 1984)
Willie Sheeks Bandy v. United States
628 F.2d 935 (Sixth Circuit, 1980)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
492 F. Supp. 13, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20393, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bandy-v-united-states-tnwd-1978.