ufacturers are still held liable because courts will protect the consumers at the expense of the manufacturer. (Kolczynski, 7) Take the John Denver crash for instance. On October 12, 1997 a Long-EZ piloted by John denver crashed at about 5:30 in the afternoon in the Pacific Ocean near Monterey, California. Denver was an experienced pilot with over 2,750 flight hours. He had flown a number of factory built aircraft but this Long E-Z was his first homebuilt. According to the NTSB investigators, Denver was practicing takeoffs and landings at Monterey Peninsula Airport. Denver was departing to the west when the airplane banked sharply and crashed into the ocean from an altitude of approximately 350 feet. The plane had only fifteen gallons of fuel onboard in the main tank when Denver took off. Barnett, 4The fuel selector handle was positioned in an awkward place, directly behind the pilots left shoulder. The NTSB stated that a probable cause of the accident was the pilots’ diversion of attention from the operation of the aircraft. It is believed that Denver inadvertently applied the right rudder while attempting to manipulate the fuel selector handle, which resulted in a loss of control of the airplane. The report states that Denver was responsible for inadequate pre-flight planning. The NTSB identified his failure to refuel the airplane when in a low fuel condition as casual because it left him groping about the cockpit in an attempt to select fuel at a low altitude. The board blames the crash primarily on pilot error. Two errors were also blamed on the original homebuilt owner. The first error was to locate the unmarked fuel selector handle in a hard to access position. The second error was placing unmarked and uncalabrated fuel quantity site gages in the cockpit. The safety board also commented on Denver’s inadequate transition training from traditional factory built aircraft to a homebuilt. (...
