Family Awarded $25.2 Million For Fla. Plane Crash

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The family of a pilot who was killed when two small planes collided has been awarded $25.2 million. The Broward County jury awarded the...See more » FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The family of a pilot who was killed when two small planes collided has been awarded $25.2 million. The Broward County jury awarded the money Wednesday to Steve Ross' wife and four children. Ross, 46, a Boca Raton chaplain, was one of five people killed when the planes crashed in the water off Deerfield Beach on June 16, 2003. Ross' family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Robinson Aviation, a private contractor operating the Boca Raton and Pompano Beach control towers. The jury awarded $1.2 million for economic damages, $10 million to Ross' wife for pain and suffering and $3.5 million to each of the couple's children. Ross and his friend, Douglas Bauer, 48, were returning from a missionary trip in the Bahamas when their Cessna 182 crashed. Flying the second plane, a Cessna 172, was Johnny Mark Willey, 39, of Margate, who was learning to be an airline pilot at Gulfstream Training Academy. Willey was killed along with his wife, Susan, 43, and his daughter, Shelbi, 12. The two planes collided moments after both pilots made contact with air traffic controllers in Pompano Beach and Boca Raton, the lawsuit said. "Robinson Aviation ... otherwise directed or failed to direct air traffic so as to avoid the midair collision of the two aircraft," the lawsuit reads. Telephone messages left Thursday morning for Robinson Aviation were not immediately returned. The Ross family reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount of money with Gulfstream Training Academy, contending that Willey was "not fit, qualified or properly trained."See less »