TCAS gives pilots correct instructions, controller does not,
but lawyer says TCAS at fault... sound familiar?
The families of six Russians who perished as a result of a
mid-air collision over Germany have decided to sue Honeywell and
other aviation equipment manufacturers in the US, blaming the TCAS
systems on both aircraft for the crash that killed 71 people in
2002. This, even though all investigations have pointed to an error
on the part of the Swiss controller -- had the pilots both followed
the TCAS commands, there would have been no accident.
A total of thirty Russian families have filed suit
against Honeywell and four other companies. The six lawsuits, filed
Thursday in Miami, allege that the companies failed to provide
adequate procedures, instructions and training.
The Bashkirian
Airlines Tu-154 collided with a DHL
International cargo aircraft on July 1, 2002 less than
a minute after receiving a radio transmission from the
one and only controller on duty at the Zurich ATC center. The
Russian jet was transporting 45 students and their families to
Barcelona, Spain.
The lawsuit claims that the collision warning system told the
Russian jet to climb while the Swiss controller told it to
descend. Instead of following the correct command from the TCAS
collision avoidance system, the Russian pilot followed the
controller's instructions and descended. At the same time, the DHL
pilot was correctly commanded twice by the TCAS system to
descend. Obviously, had both pilots followed the commands of the
TCAS systems, there would not have been a mid-air
collision.
Nevertheless, Gustavo Fuentes, a Miami attorney representing the
families behind the six lawsuits, claims that "the Russian pilots
did not have sufficiently clear instructions as to what to do when
this alarm system started to give them instructions at the same
time that the air traffic controller was giving them conflicting
instructions."
Honeywell International
has released a statement where it said it had not seen the
lawsuit and could not comment on it. However, the company has
reiterated that the investigation into the crash concluded that the
TCAS equipment functioned properly, and that the only
reasonable explanation was that the accident was
the pilots' fault for failing to follow the system's
commands.
According to Fuentes, more lawsuits were to be filed in
California, New York, New Jersey, and Washington.
The controller on duty in 2002 was Peter Nielsen -- he was
fatally stabbed outside his home on Feb. 24. Swiss police arrested
a Russian architect whose wife, son and daughter died in the
crash.