[nj_pilot]

Walter shouldn't believe everything he reads on the internet. The Merv Grazinski story is an myth that has been around for a while (see http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp for an interesting article on these "outrageous lawsuits.."

[robertpaulsen]

True. But how many thousands of these types of cases are settled out of court in order to minimize cost or prevent negative publicity?

Those we don't hear about.

[orlop9]

Gotta like Williams. But in the version I heard 20 years ago,the idiots were Iranian student pilots at N.A.S. Pensacola who didn't know the difference between Auto-pilot & cruise control. IMHO it's a tossup on whether judges or Iranian student pilots are dumber.