Judge Says Controller Cause Of Mid-Air Collision

More than seven years after the plane crash that killed WGN's Bob Collins and two other people, a federal judge ruled late Friday that Collins was only 5 percent at fault for the crash, leaving the Federal Aviation Administration and the air traffic controller mostly at fault.

Because of federal immunity from lawsuits, though, the most Collins' widow, Christine, and the other victims' families can share is the $1 million insurance policy of Midwest Air Traffic Control Services, said Christine Collins' attorney Bob Clifford.

Clifford finished making his arguments in front of U.S. District Judge John Darrah in February. In a 49-page written opinion issued Friday, Darrah explained why he thought Collins, a veteran pilot, was largely blameless for his wing clipping the tail of a student pilot's aircraft on Feb. 8, 2000.

Collins' plane crashed onto the roof of Midwestern Medical Center in Zion, injuring people there and killing him and his passenger, Herman Luscher. Student pilot Sharon Hock's plane crashed into the street, killing her.

The air traffic controller -- who had gone seven hours without a break, in violation of FAA rules -- "failed to safely separate Collins' Zlin airplane and Hock's Cesna airplane," Darrah wrote. "When [the controller] realized he was unaware of the two aircrafts' positions, [he] failed to issue a safety alert and order Collins and Hock to abort their landings, when he had the opportunity to do so."

Darrah was also bothered that the FAA never put a "TARDIS" electronic air control system in at the Waukegan Airport, even though it was eligible and one had been installed at Meigs Field, which had less traffic but more political clout and had seen an accident that killed seven people in 1997.

"Contrary to FAA-stated criteria ... the decision on whether or not to install a TARDIS at a particular location was primarily due to 'Congressional Interest' from local politicians who wanted a TARDIS installed in their district/state or after an accident at a facility," Darrah wrote.

Still, the federal government is protected from lawsuits. Collins' few sins included not telling the FAA of his diabetes and "failing to accurately identify his position," Darrah wrote.

"My husband had been unfairly targeted as the cause of the accident, and I am very pleased that the judge found that was clearly not the case," Christine Collins told Clifford.

-- Sun-Times