In the early evening hours of October 30, 2009, a US Coast Guard C-130 airplane was dispatched on a search and rescue mission over the Southern California coastline to locate a twelve foot dinghy that had been reported as overdue. At the same time, a US Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra helicopter was performing training exercises in the same area.
The weather was cool and clear. There was little wind, and the visibility was excellent. Despite these conditions, the two aircraft struck each other in mid-air and exploded into a huge fireball that could be seen for miles. Wreckage was strewn in the Pacific Ocean about halfway between San Clemente Island, a military installation, and San Diego, California.
How could this happen? How could two well trained military flightcrews, in ideal flying conditions, come to grief this way? I have pointed out elsewhere in this website about the hazards of "see and avoid," especially when flying in the daytime. Ground clutter and haze can make the task of seeing another aircraft difficult, if not impossible. But what about flying at night, in clear weather? Typically, night flying in good weather is smooth and easy. Visibility is enhanced because aircraft lights, strobes and beacons can be seen for miles.
A likely cause to his tragedy is one word: distraction. Pilots are expected to watch where they are flying, and to see and avoid other aircraft. This basic premise is pounded into every student pilot, both civilian and military alike. But it is simply unrealistic to expect that every pilot on every flight does nothing but watch out the window. Pilot chores are complicated. Pilots must handle communications with air traffic control (ATC); they must manage navigation radios; and they must monitor engine instruments and flight instruments, to name a few.
In this instance the crew of the Coast Guard C-130 had one mission: to locate and rescue if necessary the occupants of the dinghy. It is reasonable to assume that most eyes in that airplane were focused on that task. Is it possible that the pilot participated in scanning the ocean below as well, and for a brief time there were no eyes searching the skies for other aircraft?
In the meantime, the US Marine Corps Cobra helicopter was doing training maneuvers. This military euphemism means that they could have been doing anything at all that tested the limits of the machine or the people in it. Low flight, high flight, slow speed, high speed, steep turns, hovering: they are all part of training, and legitimately so. The pilot and co-pilot of the hello likely had their hands full performing the prescribed maneuvers. There is information to the effect that the downed hello was one of four that was flying information that evening. If this was the case, then the pilot had other duties as well as part of the formation flight.
Was the crew of the hello looking where they were going? Maybe, but maybe not. Civilian pilots are taught to avoid military operations areas because, though legal to fly through these areas, many times military pilots are flying fast and low, and they are looking at their instruments rather than outside the window. In this kind of scenario it would be unrealistic for a prvate pilot to expect that a military pilot would be able to see and avoid another airplane.
Bottom line? At this time nobody really knows what happened. Military investigations will take place to determine the probable cause of this tragic accident. The investigations will look into the experience level of each pilot; any disciplinary actions taken against either pilot in the past; whether or not all systems in each aircraft were functioning properly; whether or not each aircraft was in communication with ATC, and whether or not any distress calls were transmitted prior to the crash.
The distraught families of these servicemen and women will have not have the same legal rights to make claims against the government as they would if their loved ones had been aboard civilian aircraft. No civil lawsuit can be brought by these families against the federal government, per what is known as the Feres Doctrine. This rule of law, expressed by the US Supreme Court nearly sixty years ago, says the federal government cannot be held liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA).
In plain english, if you are a passenger on a jet and an employee of the US government who works for ATC allows your jet to crash into another, your heirs will be able to sue the government after filing proper claim forms, under the FTCA. Your heirs will have the right to have a federal judge decide what damages to award in such a case.
The only remedy the poor families in this crash will have is to explore what is known as the Military Claims Act. As the name implies, such a legal process does not give the right of a trial before a judge. This is an administrative claim which is ruled upon by the Judge Advocate General, and the matter cannot be appealed to a court of law. This is an awful pill to swallow for the families of those who come to grief during the course of their duties in our military, but unfortunately, it is the law of the land.
