Man suing the FBI after they crashed their plane into his car.
Posted by Capri on June 29, 2007
A man is suing the American government over a traffic accident that involved an unlikely pair of vehicles – his luxury Italian sports car, and a light aircraft piloted by a group of FBI agents.
Marlowe Treit could hardly believe his eyes when the propellor from the Cessna aeroplane mangled the driver’s side of the black 1985 Lamborghini in the bizarre accident.
Treit has now launched a lawsuit against the U.S. government because he has not been compensated for the damage to the prized car that he bought himself as a 60th birthday present in 1998.
He is accusing the pilots of negligence and seeking more than £50,000 in damages.
Two FBI agents, John Jeffries and Robert Brockmeyer, were co-piloting the plane on a “familiarisation flight,” according to an official report on the incident.
One of the agents wrote in another report that the plane was “moving down the taxiway about to enter our hangar area, moving at about a fast walk and crossing a narrow inner taxiway perpendicular to us when the aircraft crunched to a sudden stop.”
The unidentified agent added: “Out the left side window of the aircraft I saw a small black sports car dart from under the prop moving to my left, gushing fluid.”
Treit, a licensed pilot who lives in Aurora and owns a business at the airport, claims he had the right of way and that the pilot should have seen him.
But the transportation safety board determined that Treit and the agents shared blame for the wreck. Investigators said both failed “to maintain an adequate visual lookout,” which contributed to the wreck.
Treit was not injured, but his car has not been driven since.
