Controller Fatigue Cited in Air Crash Trial

Feb. 10 -- An aviation consultant testified Friday that an air-traffic controller's fatigue was a contributing factor in the midair collision that killed radio star Bob Collins and two others seven years ago.

At a federal trial stemming from lawsuits over the crash, Farrell Smith, a former Federal Aviation Administration official, said records showed that controller Gregory Fowler worked more than seven hours that day without taking a break.

In the hour before the collision, Fowler had been involved in 416 transmissions with pilots, one every 8.65 seconds, Smith said. "He's vulnerable to fatigue, mental and physical," Smith said of Fowler, whom lawyers for the three victims' families blamed for the collision. "It's critical safety-wise to give them a break, so they're sharp and aware."

Collins had been Chicago's top-ranked morning-radio personality when his Moravan Z242L struck a Cessna 172P flown by student pilot Sharon Hock as the two aircraft approached Waukegan Regional Airport near the lakefront. Collins' plane crashed onto the roof of Midwestern Regional Medical Center, killing him and passenger Herman Luscher, while Hock died when her plane plummeted onto a Zion street.

Paul Pieri, a former flight instructor who witnessed the crash, testified Friday that he had been surprised when Collins' plane passed in front of his shortly before the collision. If Collins had accurately reported his position, Pieri said, "He should have already been past me on final approach" to the airfield.

Justice Department lawyers, representing the FAA at the trial, contend that Collins caused the collision.

William Sullivan Lawrence, an expert pilot who rose to colonel in 26 years in the Marines, testified that neither Collins nor Hock had been negligent.

"I think he did the same thing that 99.9 percent of general-aviation pilots would have done," Lawrence said of Collins. He also credited Hock with doing "a fine job."

Lawrence, who did a test run to try to re-create what the two pilots encountered that day, said they were flying west into the sun under hazy conditions, "the worst of all situations."

Contributing to the accident was that Collins was flying a low-wing plane with poor visibility below him as he descended into the rear of Hock's high-wing plane, Lawrence said.

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