Air Wisconsin Airlines v Hoeper: US Supreme Court gives broad scope to immunity under ATSA
Some days are just much worse than others. Take one December day in 2004 for William Hoeper, then a pilot for six years at Air Wisconsin Airlines (“AWA”). Hoeper had flown from his Denver home to AWA’s Virginia training centre for a simulator proficiency test on the BAe-146 aircraft. This was Hoeper’s fourth try to qualify to fly that plane, which had become the only type AWA flew from Denver; another failure and he was out of a job. The test went badly. After that, his commercial flight home was hauled back to the gate so that federal agents, alerted by AWA, could board to pull Hoeper out of his seat and off the plane.