Airline Wants Computer & Software Makers to Share Blame for 1995 747 Crash in Columbia

By Catherine Wilson The Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) - The crew of an American Airlines flight was responsible for entering an incorrect code into a flight computer that caused a 1995 crash in Colombia, killing 159 people, lawyers for computer and software makers told jurors in opening statements Monday.

The jurors will be asked to apportion blame for the crash among American, computer maker Honeywell Air Transport Systems of Phoenix and software maker Jeppesen Sanderson Inc. of Englewood, Colo.

American's Flight 965, a Boeing 747, veered from its flight path on Dec. 20, 1995, after its flight management computer was programmed incorrectly for its approach to Cali. Instead of following a valley to the city, it turned into a mountainside. Only four people survived.

American attorney George Manfredi acknowledged that the crew made mistakes, but told jurors that the pilots "were concerned about doing a good job,"

Attorneys for Honeywell and Jeppesen, however, blamed only American.

"American's mistakes caused this crash," said Jeppesen attorney Michael Nachwalter. "They did everything you could do wrong on this flight computer."

Honeywell attorney Richard Dunn said the crew made so many mistakes that he couldn't get into all of them in his allotted time, saying they took shortcuts because they were running two hours late on their flight from Miami.

Dunn believes pilot Nicholas Tafuri guessed when he went to set the computer for a navigational beacon named Rozo, which would have guided the plane to Cali. He said he believes the pilot punched in the first of 12 options for beacons sharing the letter "R" instead of hitting the correct code for Rozo.

After the crash, Jeppesen documents showed that 95 of 8,000 navigational beacons worldwide, including Rozo, were not coded in its program's database. The company says Rozo was listed under its full name rather than "R."

Nachwalter said airlines had been aware of duplicate beacon codes for years.

A federal judge ruled in September 1997 that the crew caused the crash and allowed victims' damage suits to proceed against American alone.

But an appeals court later rejected that ruling and said a jury must decide blame, resulting in the current trial before a different judge.

Most family lawsuits against American have been settled. American is trying to force Honeywell and Jeppesen Sanderson to pay a portion of the crash awards.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGIJADAN67C.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), April 17, 2000

Answers

1995? Isn't that reaching back kind of far?

-- Loner (loner@bigfoot.com), April 17, 2000.

heh heh Loner, in one way, yes. In another way, the article shows it can take as much as five years for cases involving computer problems to get to trial!

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), April 17, 2000.

You're right Loner that was a long time ago and thanks Rachel, that's pretty much what I would have said!

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), April 17, 2000.

You people are brighter than me. I never thought of that. At this rate we can look forward to a flood of litigation about 2005.

-- Loner (loner@bigfoot.com), April 17, 2000.