Michael Foss, a Minor v. United States

This Federal Tort Claims Act wrongful death action was brought by the widow and children of Glenn Foss, a private pilot who was killed when his small aircraft crashed at the airport at Fullerton, California. The district court’s findings of fact, which we paraphrase, recite that in 1968 the F.A.A. prepared and disseminated a traffic pattern for the Fullerton Airport that instructed pilots, when flying in the course and at the location that Foss was flying, to maintain an altitude of 800 feet above mean sea level. On January 29,1970, while this traffic pattern was in effect, and while Foss was flying in the pattern with F.A.A. control tower clearance, his light aircraft collided with a radio tower at a point about ten feet from its top, or approximately 821 feet above mean sea level.

The district court found that the employees of the F.A.A. were negligent in publishing a traffic pattern calling for an 800 foot downwind approach when there was an 819 foot radio tower less than two miles away. It also found that the employees of the F.A.A. were negligent in failing to revise the traffic pattern after being warned of the danger by F.A.A. superiors at least ten months prior to the…