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player ready...A dispute between an airplane stunt team and an overseeing body that kept the team’s members from flying at the Gary Air Show has landed in federal court.
Team AeroDynamix filed a lawsuit in June in Lake County courts against the International Council of Air Shows, and the lawsuit was moved on Friday to the U.S. District Court in Hammond on Friday.
According to a lawsuit, Team AeroDynamix is made up of 10 planes and pilots, all of whom must have Statements of Acrobatic Competency cards from the Federal Aviation Administration in order to perform. The ICAS assists the FAA in evaluating performers for the card.
The lawsuit says that that two members of AeroDynamix were in a “minor incident” during the Tuscaloosa Air Show in Alabama on March 29. Members of the ICAS then voted to temporarily suspend the competency cards for all 10 members of AeroDynamix.
The team claims that several ICAS members who voted to revoke their competency cards are members of competing air show stunt teams, which the lawsuit claims creates an unfair advantage.
“ICAS has surreptitiously actively sought to divert AeroDynamix’s lost business to their respective air show teams that would otherwise be in competition with AeroDynamix,” the lawsuit says.
The ruling, backed by the FAA, meant that AeroDynamix couldn’t perform at six air shows already and jeopardized their performance with the Gary Air Show and other upcoming shows, the lawsuit says.
The council sent on July 9 the team a list of changes they should make, including cutting down from 10 planes to four, which the lawsuit says will effectively put them out of business.
The suit claims the suggested changes were “devised by AeroDynamix’s competitors to harm AeroDynamix.”
The lawsuit also compared the ICAS’ response to other air show accidents, some of which are fatal, saying that these usually only result in an immediate re-evaluation of the shows.
A memorandum from ICAS that was included with the lawsuit notes that the incident in March was the second one involving AeroDynamix planes in the past 12 months.
Pfenne Cantrell, an attorney for the ICAS, did not comment on the case.
The stunt team is asking for injunctive relief, along with compensatory and punitive damages.
Rudy Malnati, who oversaw booking for the air show, said AeroDynamix was replaced with Lima Lima.
Contact Teresa Auch Schultz at [email protected].