Aurora man sues feds after his sports car collides with a plane piloted by FBI agents
Posted by The Oregonian June 21, 2007 14:33PM
Categories: Breaking News, Marion County, Multimedia
Marlowe Treit was driving his dream car -- a flawless 1985 Lamborghini Countach -- on a road through the Aurora Airport last spring when something went horribly wrong.
A Cessna had collided with Treit's black Lamborghini, slicing into the exotic car and badly mangling one side. The front propeller churned up the driver's side of Treit's prized car -- the one he bought in 1998 as a 60th birthday present to himself after spending two years looking for the perfect model.
Treit walked away from the collision without any injuries, but his car hasn't been driven since. He estimates the crash did about $100,000 in damage.
And what about that Cessna? Turns out a trio of FBI agents were in the plane, which was leased by the feds. Two of the federal agents, John Jeffries and Robert Brockmeyer, were co-piloting the plane that day in May 2006, according to federal court filings. The agents were on a "familiarization flight," according to the National Transportation Safety Board's report on the incident.
One of the agents wrote in a report filed with the NTSB 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.
"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," the unidentified agent wrote.
Treit, a licensed pilot, says he had the right of way and that the pilot should have spotted him.
Treit, who lives in Aurora and owns a business at the small airport, this month filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, accusing the pilots of negligence. He is asking for $105,500 in damages. Clickhereto read Treit's lawsuit.
A spokeswoman for the FBI's Portland field office declined to comment about the incident, citing the lawsuit.
The NTSB concluded that Treit and the agents shared blame for the wreck. Investigators said both failed "to maintain an adequate visual lookout and their failure to see and avoid one another."
Treit describes the accident below:
-- Noelle Crombie