The first of a blizzard of lawsuits growing out of the Jan. 24, 2006, crash of a Hailey-based private jet will be heard March 21 in the U.S. District Court for Southern California.
In that hearing, San Diego County will ask a federal judge to summarily dismiss a suit that claims a runway obstruction was responsible for the fatal crash of a Cessna Citation 560 at the McClellan-Palomar Airport at Carlsbad, Calif., shortly after dawn at 6:40 a.m.
Representing the county-owned airport, attorney Jim Huston said he will argue the accident was due to pilot error, as the National Transportation Safety Board ruled. The NTSB probable-cause finding blamed "the captain's delayed decision to execute a balked landing (go-around) during the landing roll (and) the captain's improper decision to land with a tailwind, his excessive airspeed on final approach, and his failure to attain a proper touchdown point during landing."
During the attempted go-around, the jet struck the handrail of a navigational aid platform at the end of the runway, dooming the aircraft, which thereafter burst into flames.
All aboard were killed in the disaster—Janet Shafran, wife of international financier and former Ketchum City Councilman Steve Shafran, and a co-owner of the jet; retired health industry executive Frank Jellinek; pilot Jack Francis; and copilot Andy Garrett.
Among the evidence available to the NTSB were eyewitness accounts of the jet's speed as it crossed the runway threshold, the cockpit voice recorder and tapes from at least one airport security camera.
Various lawsuits have been filed against the county, against estates of the pilots and against owners and operators of the aircraft.
