In local newspapers around the country, unfortunate stories of older people with physical impairments who continue to operate a car and subsequently cause fatal accidents periodically wind up on the front page. More often than not, it is later revealed in most of these cases that the driver should not have been driving at all. Accidental deaths, injuries and property damages are just a few the nightmares that can occur when an older person no longer able to drive sits behind the wheel of the car. So imagine the horror of losing your loved ones in an airplane crash caused mainly by the 86-year-old pilots’ deteriorating vision. Several families experienced this unthinkable tragedy in June 2008 in northern Ohio.
The pilot, Gene Damschroder, was hosting a pancake breakfast at the airport to benefit the local Lions’ Club and taking people up for airplane rides after that event. Mr. Damschroder was a highly experienced pilot who had flown since he was twenty years old. Killed in the crash were Mr. Damschroder, Bill Ansted, 62, and Allison Ansted, 23; Danielle Gerwin, 31, and Emily Gerwin, 4, and Matt Clearman, 25.
The National Transportation Safety Board issued a report last week which stated the pilot of the airplane, Gene Damschroder Sr., was to blame for the accident. Damschroder had been warned by his eye doctor not to drive as the man had been in treatment for macular generation for two years. Macular degeneration is a condition that usually affects older adults and results in the loss of the ability to recognize faces, read or drive. Despite this dangerous disorder, the pilot denied having vision problems when he received his airman certificate in 2007. The NTSB noted the Federal Aviation Administration now has revoked the certificate of the medical examiner who approved Damschroder’s paperwork after the doctor had reported that there were no problems with his vision.
While the NTSB could not prove that Damschroder’s eyesight alone was the cause of the plane crash, investigators concluded that he used poor judgment in continuing to fly the plane; those who witnessed the accident said the aircraft was flying at a low altitude and banking before it crashed. Furthermore, the report said that based on medical knowledge of his condition, Damschroder would have had difficulty seeing readings on the cockpit instruments as well as objects on the ground. The World War II seaplane pilot also had been involved in a traffic accident just 10 days prior to the crash, according to the NTSB. Damschroder had told a state trooper that glaring sun in his eyes kept him from noticing an oncoming vehicle as he was making a turn into the airport.
Families of the victims have filed a lawsuit against the the estate of Damschroder, while the pilot’s son has admitted that his father’s declining vision and reflexes may have been the main reason for the crash.
[...] Link: Plane Crash | Airplane Accident | Pilot Error | Aviation Attorney … [...]