Air Fate flight 13 is a regional jet operating in regularly scheduled passenger service between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Passengers include Yukio Wantabe, a Japanese Elvis impersonator traveling on a round trip Tokyo-Los Angeles-Las Vegas and return ticket to attend the annual convention of Elvi; Col. Throt L. Jockey, USAF (ret.) ticketed from L.A. to Las Vegas to tell the Thunderbirds how to fly in their upcoming demonstration; Seaman 3rd Class Rollin Deck, ticketed from San Diego to Las Vegas via L.A. on leave to get married and do a little sightseeing; retired No-wheresville Police Chief Outta Hear on his way from L.A. to Vegas to get lost in the crowd and stay there for a long time; television screen writer Carl Chase, whose ticket shows L.A.- Las Vegas- Bangor, ME, but omits a planned stop in Montreal, Canada. Cargo aboard the aircraft includes a case of thousand-year-old scotch valued at $10,000 and weighing 10 KG shipped by an L.A. liquor distributor to a Las Vegas connoisseur and a 2 kg laser surgery instrument valued at $1,350,000 shipped from its Korean manufacturer to a Las Vegas hospital via L.A. The air waybills delivered to both shippers are proper in all respects. Each passenger has one checked bag.
As the passengers are walking across the ramp from the terminal to board the aircraft, a gunfight breaks out between opposing gangs in a nearby airport parking structure. Ex-chief Hear pulls his concealed weapon from under his sport coat and fires back. The ramp is sprayed with stray bullets, which kill passengers Hear and Wantabe. Everyone else gets on board the plane. As the door is closing, the First Officer asks the Captain, “Don’t you think we should get out and re-inspect the airplane to be sure we weren’t hit?” The Captain replies, “No way, we are getting out of this place now!”
After takeoff, the aircraft’s cabin will not pressurize and the aircraft begins to lose hydraulic fluid, both as a result of bullet holes. The flight crew declares and emergency, requesting an immediate descent and landing at the nearest available airport. Although Fullerton is only a few miles away, vectoring the aircraft there would require the controller to disrupt and reorganize the flow of landing traffic, so he instead vectors the wounded aircraft to Palm Springs Regional Airport, some 70 miles farther. By the time the aircraft reaches Palm Springs, it has lost all hydraulic fluid and the crew is unable to get the landing gear down and locked. The gear collapse on landing, a fuel tank erupts and the aircraft and all passengers and cargo are incinerated beyond recognition.
1. Describe the extent of liability of the airline for each named passenger, their baggage and the cargo.
2. Does the air traffic controller who was vectoring the flight have any exposure to personal liability for the accident? Fully explain your answer.
3. Is the United States potentially liable to the families of any of the above named passengers or to the shippers? Fully explain your answer.