Judge Rules Air Traffic Controller at Fault in Bob Collins Case

    Attorney Robert A. Clifford said that popular WGN disc jockey Bob Collins has been exonerated following a federal judge’s ruling late yesterday on the mid-air collision that occurred in 2000.
    U.S. District Court Judge John W. Darrah ruled late Friday (Sept. 28, 2007) that the air traffic controller at Waukegan Regional Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration were at fault in misguiding the small planes of Bob Collins and that of a student pilot while they were trying to land more than seven years ago.  Based upon the admission of liability by Midwest Air Traffic Control Services, the judge also entered an order against the company for nearly $1 million, its maximum insurance coverage.
    Judge Darrah issued a 49-page written opinion following a three-week trial that concluded seven months ago that Clifford tried with partner Kevin P. Durkin.  Because of legal immunities in lawsuits against governmental entities, Judge Darrah found that although the FAA’s actions clearly were negligent involving the mid-air collision that killed Collins, student pilot Sharon Hock and Collins’ passenger, Herman Luscher, the victims’ families could not collect damages from the federal government.  The court ruled previous case law and governmental immunities prevented the plaintiffs from recovering damages in a civil lawsuit from the FAA.  The parties had entered into an agreement before trial with the air traffic controller company, Midwest, which admitted liability just prior to trial that called for a tender of its policy limits, which left the FAA as the only defendant remaining in the federal lawsuit.
    Judge Darrah specifically found that Collins, the morning WGN dj, was just 5 percent to blame for the accident.  “Mrs. Collins always knew that her husband was a very careful and experienced pilot,” Clifford said following the decision.  “The legal immunities that are in place to protect governmental entities may be unfair against certain individuals, but nevertheless, we respect the law and appreciate that the judge took the time to carefully ascertain what occurred that day and found that Bob Collins was virtually free from fault.”
    In his opinion, Judge Darrah wrote that it was uncontradicted that “Collins was unable to see Hock’s Cessna airplane below him because of the location of the (low) wings of the Zlin aircraft and Collins’ position in the airplane above the wings and because of the weather conditions at the time of the collision, including severe glare from the angle of the sun and ground clutter presented to Collins.” 
    The Judge went on to list the failures of the air traffic controller that caused the mid-air collision.  In further discussing the FAA’s “negligent in failing to install TARDIS” at Waukegan’s airport, a radar display that unquestionably would have “depicted the location of the Hock Cessna and the Collins Zlin airplanes and alerted the controller to their converging collision courses and would have prevented the collision,” Judge Darrah found that the government’s failure to do so falls within the discretionary function exception of the Federal Tort Claims Act.  That means that the government is shielded from liability in spite of its unquestionable negligence.
    “My husband had been unfairly targeted as the cause of the accident, and I am very pleased that the Judge found that clearly was not the case,” said Christine Collins following the decision.