December 2005 Deadly Crash Questions FAA Actions

What started out as a father taking his daughter and two of her friends for a ride in his Cessna 195 turned tragic on December 18, 2005, when the aircraft found itself in IFR weather and needing assistance from air traffic controllers.

The four people on board included Gary Tillman, his daughter Hannah, and two of her friends, as ANN reported.

Rescue crews brought the two friends to safety. One survived, the other later died. Crews found the bodies of Tillman and his daughter two weeks later in the wreckage.

It's been a tough year for us you know," says Earl Tillman, Gary Tillman's father, to First Coast News.

He said his son was an excellent pilot and most likely would be alive today if the FAA had followed through with his son's request.

Which brings us to the lawsuit filed by the Tillman family last week. According to the suit, Tillman could not see out of the cockpit due to poor visibility and had to use aircraft instruments and help from FAA controllers.

ANN reported the transcript released by Atlanta's WSB-TV as follows:

• TOWER: Nover 22 Lima your Mode C appears to be intermittent.
• TILLMAN: OK, 22 Lima this moisture causes strange things no doubt.
• TOWER: OK, I'm just letting you know. What altitude are you leaving.
• TILLMAN: Climbing through four thousand four hundred.
• TOWER: Thank you.
  Moments later...
• TILLMAN: Two, two Lima, we just lost an engine here. Two, Two Lima, we need a vector for the beach if possible.
• TOWER: Say it again, sir.
• TILLMAN: Two, two lima, we, ah our engine just started running rough, we need a vector if possible.
• TOWER: Yes sir. Are you able to maintain altitude? If you're not, I'll vector you right in on the localizer and nice little glide rate.
• TILLMAN: I'm unable to maintain altitude.
• TOWER: Number of souls on board?
• TILLMAN: Four souls.
• TOWER: Nover two, two lima, your position is three miles east of the airport as you break out, turn right two seven zero.
• TILLMAN: See, I'm heading to heading of two seven zero. We're over the water, we're not going to make it.
• TILLMAN: Send some help, we're going in the drink. (This was the last transmission from Tillman.)
• TOWER: Alright, we're coming out. We'll send folks out to you.
• TOWER: Two, two lima just crashed, we believe, in the ocean down in St. Augustine, so any new information you might have starting putting it together.

Tillman had filed an IFR flight plan from Craig Municipal Airport in Jacksonville, FL, to St. Lucie County International Airport in Fort Pierce.

The lawsuit claims, "The FAA directed Mr. Tillman to fly over the ocean." While over the ocean, the "engine began to lose power."

"He asked the controller to steer him to the beach to safety, and instead of doing that they turned him out over the water for reasons we'll never understand," said Woody Wilner, who represents the family.

Wilner said that instead of steering Tillman to the beach, the FAA sent him on a path over the water towards the St. Augustine Airport.

"They had a duty to bring him back and did not do that," said Wilner.

According to the lawsuit, the FAA failed to tell Tillman the course controllers had him on would keep him over the water and "not lead him to the beach."

The lawsuit also claims the FAA knew Tillman was "unable to maintain altitude" and would need help yet, "failed to notify the United States Coast Guard to begin rescue attempts."

"In my heart when he asked for vectors to the beach and could have gotten that, he would have had a successful landing," said his father

The FAA declined to comment on the case because it is pending litigation

FMI:  www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov