If the federal court timeline is followed, trial on assorted lawsuits growing out of the Jan. 24, 2006 fatal California crash of a Hailey-based Citation jet won't begin until Nov. 16, 2009—three years and 10 months after the disaster that took lives of four Wood River Valley residents.
If that seems like the wheels of justice are grinding slowly, one of the attorneys in the case, Ellen Nudelman, representing San Diego County where the crash occurred, explained there are an array of plaintiffs and defendants and attorneys that have required milestones leading up to trial taking depositions and preparing evidence.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw will preside over the case in the district court for Southern District of California.
The dawn crash killed all aboard—Janet Shafran, wife of former Ketchum city councilman Steven Shafran; retired health industry executive Frank Jellinek, and pilot Jack Francis and co-pilot Andy Garratt.
Steven Shafran was a co-owner of the Citation 500 series jet. The aircraft had departed Friedman Memorial Airport around dawn.
The National Transportation Safety Board has already found the pilots were at fault. According to black box data from the aircraft and witnesses, the jet approached the runway of McClellan-Palomar Airport at excessive speed, touched down too far down the 4,600-foot runway and then attempted to take off again before striking an airport instrument structure.
The tangle of lawsuits by families of the dead is against the owners of the aircraft, against the airport and San Diego County and against the Federal Aviation Administration. The airport is alleged to have maintained the landing strip improperly.
