Arrogant judges making law...

Quoted text to follow my comments:

The Federal Judges have gone nuts (so what's new?)... Based on what I
read here a non pilot judge has decided that the controller is
obligated to fly the airplane... These kinds of garbage rulings have
enormous concequences for the rest of us as pilots... The general
public doesn't understand and doesn't care and thus will remain silent,
but we pilots need to start protesting to the courts( with real
letters, not email) about their bad decisions...


*****************Lifted shamelessly from AOPA bulletin*******
FAA accused in two Florida crashes
Instrument flying in Florida is enshrouded in a heavy fog of
litigation. Two recent court cases, one pending and one already
decided, have some similarities that could place some of the blame on
FAA controllers.

Survivors of a pilot who was killed in a crash sued the FAA in federal
court recently, alleging that controllers didn't warn the pilot of his
position on final approach and that FAA employees didn't maintain
landing equipment properly.

On November 27, 2003, Dr. George Swanson, a physician from Texas, was
flying a Swearingen Merlin II on an ILS approach into Craig Municipal
Airport in Jacksonville. Controllers had advised the pilot that the
weather was below landing minimums and gave him alternate airports,
according to the NTSB's preliminary report.

But the lawsuit claims that controllers didn't advise Swanson of the
alternate airports and failed to warn him that he was flying too low on
final approach because of irregularities in transponder altitude
readouts that were "greater than 300 feet in error." The lawsuit also
alleges that FAA employees were negligent in inspecting the ILS for
electrical interference from nearby microwave and cell phone towers.

The pilot attempted the approach but hit trees behind a shopping
center. Swanson died in the incident while his four children on board
reported only minor injuries.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of another case in which a federal judge
found the FAA mostly liable for a 2001 crash that killed two attorneys
and their two clients at Jacksonville International Airport. In the
decision reached November 15, the FAA was faulted for not giving the
pilot current and complete weather information. The pilot in that
crash, Donald Weidner, was found to be 35 percent responsible because
he became disoriented after two missed approaches (one of which was at
Craig).

The FAA claimed that the pilot was "well-informed about the weather"
during "all stages of the flight," reported The Florida Times-Union. A
contributing factor may have been cold medication, not approved by the
FAA, that he had taken. "Weidner's decision to undertake the flight
despite his illness, fatigue, and ingestion of medications does not
meet the standard of care expected of a reasonably prudent instrument
pilot," said Justice Department attorney Colleen Conlin, according to
the newspaper.

There will be a separate trial to determine the amount of damages. -
Nathan A. Ferguson