The widow of a jogger who was killed by an experimental aircraft as it made an emergency landing on a Hilton Head beach has sued the pilot, as well as Teledyne Continental Motors, Hartzell Propeller, Lancair International, and Penn Yan Aero Service, according to Courthouse News Service. The jogger, Robert Jones, was listening to his iPod as he ran on the beach and couldn’t hear the aircraft as it made the emergency landing. Wonder if she’ll sue Apple as well? Check out the story here.
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Janice Wood is editor of General Aviation News.
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Amy, How many people is it OK to kill to save the jogger?
The pilot had a passenger he had to save, and couldn’t see outside of the airplane because when the engine failed, and the prop fell off, the front windshield was covered in oil.
Plus, there are swimmers, surfers, boaters, etc which might have been in the water. So it’s OK to kill them, but not a jogger?
The pilot circled, before landing. A bystander watched him circling and didn’t call out for people to get out of the way. No liability for that guy. Still, the pilot was “selfish and reprehensible”?
Oh, and the mechanic shop that rebuilt the engine and declared it safe? Not their fault they missed a crack in the main shaft. All the pilot’s fault.
But, let’s compare this to something we all do, and not just those nasty pilots.
You’re driving a car. Your best friend is in the car with you. You’re on a windy mountain road. Your engine pops and sprays oil on your window. You can drive off the cliff, or pull over to the shoulder and stop. You choose to pull over on the shoulder. You hit a cyclist because you couldn’t see him, and he didn’t hear you because your engine wasn’t running and he had an ipod going.
By your logic, you should go to jail and be punished for your reprehensible behavior. You chose to save your life and your friend’s life instead of driving off the side of the mountain where you knew there were no cyclists.
Seriously? You are blaming the jogger? Yes, I see – because it is an everyday hazard to potentially be hit by a plane while running on a beach.
Get real. The ipod and jogger werent the issue. Pilot chose not to land in the water – where no people would be at 6pm at night – to save his own life while taking the life of someone else. Selfish and reprehensible. He deserves jail time along with the lawsuit.
The victim’s wife somehow forgot to sue Apple, maker of the iPod. Without question, the world’s largest company with a Market Capitalization of 283 Bilion dollars has deeper pockets than the pilot, Lancair, Continental, Pen Yan and Hartzell combined. Or did she choose to not litigate against Apple exactly for that reason, that it would cost her a fortune to sue Apple and face a company with an excellent defense team that is willing to spend what ever it takes to beat such a lawsuit and would most likely prevail?
How about her husband’s tennis shoe manufacturer? How about the beach community? May be she should sue herself because she let him out of the house that day when he should have been doing house work.
Dave Pohl
I think those that jog while listening to their iPod at volume high enough not to hear the world around them are incredibly stupid, but the fact remains you don’t make an emergency landing that will strike someone. Although the widow suing more then just the pilot shows she is just as stupid as her husband. I’m sure the motor, propeller, etc. were part of the decision of where to make that emergency landing.
Bottom line: The pilot still should have made another choice of where to land, including that of ditching.