Monday, September 7, 2009

What If A Sight-Challenged Kielbasa Texts-While-Driving?: “Killer Krakowski, FAA COO”, Episode #3

The closer that one examines the personnel currently "managing" the Federal Aviation Administration, the more these people look like goons, geeks, clowns, and malevolent carnies from a travelling freakshow.

Below is the transcript of the continuation of the Year 2002 deposition of one Henry P. (Hank) Krakowski, who is currently YOUR FAA’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) pro tempore.
While still a sycophantic commercial airline pilot for United Airlines in 1999, Hank and 5 United Airlines commercial flight-buddies pretended to be weekend-warrior stunt_pilots for a UAL corporate suckup airshow. Hank helped get one of his pilot pals killed, a man named Keith J. Evans, in a “wreckage and fireball”. [Below Transcript, Page 73, Line 4]. Hank Krakowski, a more senior member of the Lima Lima flight team and its "Safety Officer", knew that Keith Evans was under-practiced, under-prepared, and under-qualified to fly the dangerous “Pop Top” aerial maneuver that killed Evans. Yet Hank Krakowski put Evans and the so-called Lima Lima flight team in the air anyway.

The Wrongful Death Complaint:
http://removesturgell.blogspot.com/2009/09/hank-krakowski-gets-named-killer.html

The Prior and First Session of Hank Krakowski’s Year 2002 Deposition:
http://ejectsturgell.blogspot.com/2009/09/greasy-fingers-blind-pilots-reading.html

In the below transcript of the second session of Hank Krakowski’s deposition, from March 18, 2002, we learn as follows:

Perhaps most importantly, HanKielbasa tries to wriggle out of answering the pointed question of “How many times had Keith [Evans] flown the Pop Top maneuver?”. Page 44, Line 23-24; Page 45, Line 1-24. Hank Krakowski evasively first tries to distract counsel by testifying how it’s the most practiced maneuver of the OTHER PILOTS (Page 45, Line 1-2); then Hank feigns ignorance as to the extent of Keith’s “limited” time with Lima Lima (Page 45, Line 13-15, 17-18); and then Hank confesses “I HAVE NO IDEA, SIR” as to how many times Keith had actually done the Pop Top! Page 45, Line 22-24.

Query: Had Keith Evans actually even ever done the Pop Top maneuver correctly, prior to it killing him?

Incidentally, as was the case in the first deposition session, its “.jpeg” transcript also linked above to this blog, Hank Krakowski was yet again stupid enough to not bring his own lawyer representing him, to a deposition in a wrongful death litigation wherein he had already implicated himself as culpable in the deposition’s first session. Page 2, Line 5-7. What an IDIOT.

Hank Krakowski admits that the practice run that killed Keith J. Evans was painted on the death-canvas of an “evening sky” (though the NTSB Report says it was an overcast October 1, 199 4:00 PM), whereby according to Hank, pilots could only see each other’s planes in silhouette at best. Page 55, Line 18-24. Page 56, Line 1-24. Page 57, Line 1-18. Page 70, Line 19-22. And THIS was an appropriate setting for Hank to place Keith Evans in? – Evans being a pilot with little-to-no Pop Top experience, never having flown in an airshow previously?
And now HanKielbasa handles life-and-death matters at FAA as its Chief Operating Officer, for millions of the travelling public and others – and for you and me? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.

A bombshell – At or immediately prior to the precise time that Keith Evans’s plane collided mid-air, then sending Evans spiraling downward to his death, Page 67, Line 21-23; Hank Krakowski, flying closely behind Evans, indulged in two separate and successive distractions while driving – Hank took a distracting radio call from the No. 1 plane, Page 47, Line 15-20; and then Krakowski TOOK HIS EYES AWAY FROM HIS OWN FLIGHT-PATH TO LOOK DOWN AT HIS CONTROL PANEL FOR HIS POWER SETTING. Page 47, Line 21-24. Page 48, Line 1-24. Page 51, Line 23-24. Page 52, Line 1. Page 73, Line 18-24. Page 74, Line 1-3. Yet Hank later in the same session testifies under oath and penalty of perjury that such radio calls are enough of a distraction to the stunt-pilots otherwise, that they try to minimize such radio calls and instead “use hand signals wherever possible”. Page 74, Line 1-3. Query what hand-signals can a pilot see in a darkened sky when the planes are only visible in silhouette and he is fishing for his reading glasses to check his instrument panel.

What if you were tailgating someone at dusk on I-80 and then took a cell phone call and commenced texting on your BlackBerry at the same time? What do you think the car in front of YOU might do in response when you start to swerve as a result? – perhaps swerve into the other car in the lane next to him in front of you? – and would you actually see the impact, if you were looking at your own dashboard at the time? Page 49, Line 1-24. Moreover, by the time of Hank Krakowski’s testimony two-and-a-half years after the mid-air crash that killed Keith Evans, Hank knew that he was the only living pilot of the 5 remaining survivors who actually saw anything of the mid-air collision. Page 50, Line 24. Page 51, Line 1-4. Page 52, Line 12-24. Page 53, Line 1-2. Page 72, Line 2-7. Page 75, Line 9-24. Page 76, Line 1-24. That means Hank could lie about it. Dead men tell no tales.

Realizing how badly he screwed up the first session of his deposition, yet still uncounseled, Hank tries to get away with giving more transcript-unintelligible “Mm-hmm” answers than Patti LaBelle singing “Lady Marmalade”. Page 4, Line 22. Page 18, Line 20. Page 34, Line 3. Page 34, Line 6. Page 42, Line 19. Page 46, Line 11. Page 63, Line 5. Page 68, Line 2. The flight team attorney who made all those objections in the first transcript, makes few or none in the second – perhaps now knowing that the rest of the flight team is about to try to roll over on Hank and his insurance policy for the wrongful death liability to Evans’s family.

Hank Krakowski directly contradicts his prior statements as to whether it was Keith Evans’s left wing or right wing that in the air that he saw damaged. This in turn creates two different possibilities – either Hank rigged his altered testimony for the deposition to protect someone, perhaps even himself – or else Hank is simply too stupid to know his right from his left. Page 54, Line 15-24. Hank does aerial backflips to reconcile his inconsistent statements, at one point even suggesting that he confused left wing and right wing because an airplane he saw was upside down, Page 55, Line 3-5; evoking the incredulous litigator response of, “[A]re you indicating from that distance it would be difficult to determine if an aircraft[,] a T-34 aircraft[,] was either right side up or upside down, inverted?”. Page 55, Line 14-17. Page 57, Line 13-24, Page 58-63. Page 65, Line 20-23. See also Page 65, Line 7-15: “That’s a typo. That’s a typo… That’s a typo”. Page 68, Line 14-24, Page 69, Line 1-24. Page 70, Line 1-10. Hank gives witness statements and testifies as if he is making it up as he goes along – much like his current work as FAA COO.

Hank Krakowski reconfirms under oath that there was United Airlines corporate pressure or “interest” in having the 6 United pilots fly the vanity airshow at Chicago’s Navy Pier. Page 4, Line 18-24, Page 5, Line 1; notwithstanding the fact that some of these pilots including Keith Evans were under-practiced, under-prepared, and under-qualified to handle Lima Lima’s aerial Pop Top maneuver, and remained so until Evans got killed in the Lima Lima mid-air crash during a practice run.

Hank Krakowski re-confesses that it was HIS OWN DUMB IDEA to put these hazardous ersatz ex-aerobats in the air to satisfy the ego of departing United Vice President Hart Langer – and that Hank himself was the one who shopped the idea around to the other Lima Lima team members including decedent Keith J. Evans – and that Hank himself was the one who effected necessary liaisons with United Airlines and faxed the flight diagram to the airshow’s MC – and that Hank himself was the one who interacted with Chicago power-broker Rudy Malnati of the pizzeria-owning Malnati family since although mysteriously without a title Rudy “worked for the city” of Chicago and downtown Chicago was “his [Malnati’s] turf” – and that it was Hank himself who was the “slot pilot” in the Number 4 position, who was making the decisions, and who then made the radio call when Evans’s plane spiraled down. Page 5, Line 15-24. Page 6, Line 18-23. Page 7, Line 1-24. Page 8, Line 1-6. Page 9, Line 9-20. Page 10, Line 19-24. Page 11, Line 1. Page 11, Line 8-17. Page 12, Line 11-24. Page 13, Line 1-9. Page 14, Line 19-24. Page 15, Line 1-10. Page 20, Line 2-24. Page 21, Line 1-24. Page 22, Line 1-24. Page 23, Line 1-3. Page 24, Line 24. Page 25, Line 1-2. Page 37, Line 10. Page 70, Line 11-14. Face it. It was Hank Krakowski who brought pilot Keith J. Evans to Keith’s fiery violent death. It was Hank Krakowski who knew Evans was an air hazard jeopardizing 6 or even more lives mid-air. It was Hank Krakowski who could have called off this ill-conceived psychobilly airshow at any time. But Hank didn’t.

Hank again conveniently loses his memory throughout the deposition wherever convenient to him, this time by Page 6 of its transcript. Page 6, Line 14. Page 8, Line 5-6. Page 12, Line 15-16. Page 17, Line 24. Page 18, Line 5-6. Page 18, Line 15-16. Page 23, Line 9-11. Page 24, Line 17-23. Page 25, Line 8-20. Page 31, Line 20-21. Page 32, Line 15-20. Page 33, Line 20-22. Page 45, Line 15, 17-18. Page 54, Line 22-23. Page 65, Line 3-6. Page 67, Line 10-12. Page 68, Line 17-19, Line 22. Page 69, Line 11-12, 21-22, 23-24. Page 78, Line 3-4. Page 79, Line 8, Line 22. Page 80, Line 1-2, 12, 20.

Then, another bombshell – Hank testifies that the Lima Lima flight team was short-staffed for this corporate ego-gig - and that if Keith Evans had not been in the aerial program, there would have been no other United Airlines pilot available to fly it! Page 13, Line 10-12. [See also Page 15, Line 11-18, confirming that Lima Lima was too short-staffed to even have a pilot-narrator available for the Navy Pier airshow]. Now we know why Hank Krakowski put decedent Keith J. Evans in the air knowing Keith was not adequately prepared to fly the split-second maneuvers required in a Pop Top. Page 42, Line 11-15. Under United Airlines pressure, and having already committed to the stupid and dangerous idea of the airshow, Hank boxed himself in and left himself with no other option but to make Keith fly it. Later in his deposition Hank tries to soft-pedal the Pop Top as what’s known as a “Chandelle maneuver” and no big deal, even though it is a minimum requirement for a commercial pilot license, Page 38, 39, and 40, Lines 1-3; prompting plaintiff’s counsel to put Hank in his disingenuous Francophiliac place by sarcastically commenting on record: “Q. Yeah. I mean, I wonder why the government gets concerned with whether you can do it or not.”(!).

Hank Krakowski testifies about one or more distracting late changes made to the Lima Lima aerial routine. Page 16, Line 11-17. Page 17, Line 11-24. Page 18, Line 11-16. Page 19, Line 11-21. That wasn’t the smartest thing to do to a pilot like decedent Keith J. Evans who had never flown in an airshow previously. Page 32, Line 21-24.

Hank Krakowski then testifies about how a critical Lima Lima practice run flying to the Miegs air facility and picking up the show’s MC, got botched up, since the planes were “delayed” getting off the ground at Naper Aero. Page 23, Line 8-21. Rushed and under-practiced – a recipe for mid-air disaster.

Then Hank dodges the proverbial bullet, testifying that he has no idea what the inscription “UNITED PAY” on an airshow document, actually meant. Page 25, Line 3-5. No wonder United Airlines promoted Hank! His mendacious testimony saved United’s civil liability ass!

Feeling responsible after the mid-air crash, Hank and his plane escorted the damaged plane that had crashed with Evans’s plane, to the Aurora air facility. Page 27, Line 4-6. In Hank’s words, “We was[sic] pretty shook up…”, Page 27, Line 13. Then Hank and his fellow Lima Lima pilots – the ones that survived the Pop Top, that is – quickly assembled and retired to a conference room to debrief themselves and get their stories straight for the NTSB and the civil litigation inquiries inevitably to follow. Page 28, 6-23. Page 29, Line 3-24. Page 75, Line 5-8. Even veritable friend of the aviation industry and United, the FAA, participated in the scripting of the ensuing testimony. Page 31, Line 19-24. Funny. When Bill Clinton and Betty Currie did this in regards to the Monica Lewinsky gifts, some called that “obstruction of justice” rather than an office meeting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Currie#Lewinsky_scandal

Hank Krakowski denies that any of the surviving pilots in the “debriefing” questioned whether decedent Keith Evans should have flown the Lima Lima Pop Top with them. Page 32, Line 15-20. That’s wholly implausible nonsense.

Yet Hank again admits that Keith’s night-before practice was sloppy and evoked Hank’s corrective comments. Then Hank goes on to admit that there “had been enough comment on Keith” [meaning comment from Hank and at least one other pilot], such that Hank himself “recommended” an extra aerial practice with Evans prior to the 3:00 session of October 1, 1999. Page 33, Line 1-24. Page 34, Line 1. For Hank Krakowski, safety is not an absolute, subject to a strict liability standard, but merely something to shoot for: “A. Well, I mean, everything that we do we try to do in a safe manner”. Page 40, Line 22-23. “Try”, Hank?

Hank Krakowski also testifies as to where his real priorities lie – saving his own greasy skin. His “fight or flight” reaction was to get the Hell out of the way when he saw his pilot buddies in trouble. Page 63, Line 13-24. Page 64, Line 19-21: “So I chose to make a… right turn to make sure I wasn’t going to be the recipient of any problems”. Page 66, Line 12-22. Evasive Kielbasa.

The irony is, Hank Krakowski ultimately slithered away from civil liability in this wrongful death lawsuit, leaving the widow and children of Keith Evans with little-to-nothing from him or United. Hank slithered away from defendant staus on a procedural technicality. Now Hank is the COO of the FAA and makes safety decisions every day affecting the calculation of whether you and your family and fellow air travelers and other Americans live, or die. Just like Hank made those decisions – badly – with Keith Evans’s life and the lives of Keith’s family.

But hey. At least Hank Krakowski reassures us that it's OK, he can "read fuzzy":

Part 2 of Hank's deposition transcript follows. Please read it sitting down and when you're not driving. After all,

"There's a killer on the road
His brain is squirming like a toad":