A federal judge on Friday absolved the National Weather Service and air traffic controllers of negligence in the 1985 fatal crash of a Delta Air Lines jet during a severe thun-derstorm.
The judge said the crew was negligent for trying to land in the storm.In a 72-page opinion, U.S. District Judge David O. Belew Jr. said that Delta Air Lines "failed to prove that the United States of America was guilty of any negligence."
In the longest major aviation trial in U.S. history, attorneys for Delta had argued that the National Weather Service had been to blame for the crash at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport because crew members didn't have sufficient warning about the severity of a thunderstorm at the airport.
The airline had sought to make the government pay all or part of the millions of dollars in claims arising from the crash.
The Atlanta-based airline said it would appeal the decision, saying it was "in direct conflict with the recent jury verdict . . . in Fort Lauderdale holding Delta blameless in all respects for the accident."
Delta "continues to believe that the facts surrounding this case clearly establish total government responsibility for the tragic accident."
The Lockheed L-1011, en route from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Dallas, crashed trying to land at DFW on Aug. 2, 1985, when it was caught in a downburst of wind during a thunderstorm. The accident killed 137; 27 people on board survived.