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© St. Petersburg Times, published February 20, 2002
TAMPA -- A company that employed a flight instructor killed in a plane crash at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport filed a lawsuit late last week against the U.S. government and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Cirrus Aviation claims that the March 9, 2000, crash that killed instructor Lori Bahrenburg, 26, and three other people was the fault of confused air traffic controllers.
The company is seeking $103,100 in damages for lost revenue and increased insurance, among other things.
The pilot's parents filed a separate multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the FAA in 2000.
A report by the National Transportation Safety Board stated that two air traffic controllers apparently mistook the position of a Cessna 172 when clearing its pilot to move onto a runway and that pilot failed to make sure the runway was clear.
Those action placed 81-year-old Julius Taubman and 74-year-old David Mouckley -- it was unclear which one was piloting the plane at the time -- directly in the path of Bahrenburg's Cessna 152 that had just been cleared for takeoff and was racing down the runway.
With Bahrenburg was pilot Charles Heffner, 80.