Heffner vs. the FAA
N/AOUTCOME: Settled for over 2 million
Charlie Heffner, an 81-year-old student pilot, had a stellar reputation as a generous human. After Pearl Harbor, he volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps and then spent the next half-century devoted ... to supporting his wife and kids. Getting his pilot’s license was a lifelong dream. But Heffner was killed March 19, 2000, when, as he was accelerating for takeoff at Sarasota Bradenton Airport, air traffic control mistakenly directed another plane into the path of his Cessna. On behalf of Heffner’s widow, Shirley, Robertson sued the FAA for negligence, investing $250,000 and multiple trips to Washington, D.C. to pursue the case over four years. He persevered. In 2004, the federal government awarded a $2 million settlement. Before Heffner’s death, “Shirley had been planning a big party to pin Charlie’s wings on him,” says Robertson, who stayed in touch with Shirley until her death in 2015. “Becoming a pilot was the one thing that he was doing for himself.”
