Dastardly Defense
Comair, a subsidiary of Delta Airlines, is being sued over the crash of Flight 5191. The plane crashed upon takeoff near Lexington, Ky., because the pilot used the wrong runway — a closed, unlit runway far shorter than the one the plane was assigned to. First officer James M. Polehinke, who was performing the takeoff and is the only survivor, is personally the subject of 21 lawsuits over the crash. His attorney, William E. Johnson, 75, argued that the 47 passengers of the flight share “contributory negligence” for their own deaths. “The decedent[s] should have been aware of the dangerous conditions at the Bluegrass Airport on the morning of August 27, 2006,” he wrote, “in that there had been considerable media coverage about the necessity of improving runway conditions at the airport.” After an outcry over the possible defense, “we looked into it more, [and] we found that is not a proper defense,” Johnson said. (Lexington Herald-Leader) ...But only because he couldn’t prove that anyone actually watches local TV news anymore.
Available in This is True: Book Collection Vol. 14