UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OFFICE OF HEARINGS

IN THE MATTER OF: NORTHEASTERN AVIATION CORPORATION Respondent
Tuesday, March 22, 2016 FDMS No. FAA-2014-0812 1

The teleconference convened, pursuant to notice, at 1:30 p.m. BEFORE: THE HONORABLE J. E. SULLIVAN, Administrative Law Judge

(202) 234-4433 :,--

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NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433APPEARANCES:
On Behalf of the Complainant: ZACHARY M. BERMAN of: Office of Regional Counsel, Eastern Region Federal Aviation Administration 1 Aviation Plaza Jamaica, New York 11434 718-553-3273 zachary.berman@faa.gov
On Behalf of the Respondent: EDWARD J. LONGOSZ, II, ESQ. of: Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellot, LLC 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Suite 1200 Washington, D.C. 20036 202-659-6619 elongosz@eckertseamans.com

Also Present: 2

DOUGLAS M. RAWALD, Administrative Law Judge

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-44333 1 P-R-0-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 (1:31 p.m.) 3 JUDGE SULLIVAN: We're on the record 4 in the matter of Northeastern Aviation 5 Corporation. This is Docket Number FAA-2014- 6 0812. Today is Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016 and the 7 parties have convened for a third pre-hearing 8 status conference. 9 The FAA is represented by its Attorney 10 of Record, Mr. Zachary M. Berman. 11 The Respondent, Northeastern Aviation 12 Corporation, is represented by its Attorney of 13 Record, Mr. Edward J. Longosz, II. 14 Also present at the Office of Hearing, 15 sitting in as an observer only, is Judge Douglas 16 M. Rawald. Good afternoon to you all. 17 MR. BERMAN: Good afternoon. 18 MR. LONGOSZ: Good afternoon again, 19 Your Honor. 20 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Yes. I'll note that 21 the parties last convened on March 2nd, 2016 by 22 telephone.

(202) 234-4433 During that time

NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005·3701 the parties

(202) 234-44334 

### 1 discussed the status of the case and agreed, 2 among other things, to reconvene for a third pre3 hearing status conference on today's date and 4 time. 5 

### An order issued on March 3rd, 2016 6 codified that agreement and that order is 7 identified as the March 3rd, 2016 order setting 8 

### third pre-hearing status conference and 9 granting/denying other relief. 10 Since the parties had been talking, as 11 of March 2nd, 2016 and potentially settling the 12 matter, I'm going to turn first to the FAA 13 Attorney and ask about the status of the case. 14 Mr. Berman? 15 

### MR. BERMAN: Yes, Judge, I apologize. 16 I feel it's a matter that would be resolved by 17 today, but hasn't quite been. 18 

### I left a message with Mr. Longosz 19 about it an hour ago saying, and this is what I 20 told him and I'll tell you, Your Honor, that 21 there was a lot of, that there was more back and 22 forth than I expected, within in the Agency,

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.. N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-44335

1 

### about what type of settlement offer we propose. 2 But we finally, I believe that the 3 Agency

-- within the Agency, we finally came to 4 

### an agreement, about an hour ago, that we would 5 

### settle the case for a warning notice. And it's 6 

### just a question of putting together, it shouldn't 7 

### take that long. 8 

### They said, again, that they should 9 

### have a draft warning notice for me that I can 10 

### incorporate into the settlements agreement. So I 11 

### would ask for your indulgence, Your Honor, in 12 

### asking for another two weeks so we could finally 13 

### resolve this. 14 

### We're a lot closer now then, I know 15 

### you've heard this before, it sounds like a broken 16 

### record, but this time we're more firmly

-- just 17 

### more firm within the Agency that what we want, 18 

### how we want to settle this case. 19 

### And I don't anticipate any problem 20 

### getting Northeastern to agree to that. 21 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: Thank you, Mr. 22 Berman. Mr. Longosz, turning to you, do you have

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS ANDTRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-44336

1 

### anything you would like to add or correct to the 2 FAA's summary of the status of the case? 3 

### MR. LONGOSZ: No, this is the first 4 I've heard it. And I apologize, I was not in the 5 

### office to accept the phone call, but I'm fine 6 

### with those representations. 7 

### As I mentioned to, Your Honor, the 8 

### last time, the devil's in the details. And as 9 

### soon as we see what's proposed, we'll turn around 10 and look at it. And if there's any issues we'll 11 

### deal with Mr. Berman. 12 But I 

### think everything that he 13 

### mentioned here is consistent with our prior 14 

### conversations regarding the type of settlement. 15 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. Why don't we 16 do this then, because it does cost the FAA money 17 

### to pay for a 

### court reporter for these 18 

### proceedings. And it does cost the Counsel time 19 and money to appear for them. 20 We currently have a hearing scheduled 21 for Manhattan, New York on May 4 and May 5, 2016. 22 I have reserved a courtroom at the Jacob K.

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-44337 

### 1 Javits Federal Building in downtown New York 2 City. So I'll be sending out a notice of hearing 3 location to you both. 4 What I would suggest, however, is that 5 I give you a report in deadline as opposed to a 6 

### telephone conference. I'm going to suggest this 7 

### to you to see if this would work. 8 

### So Today is March 22nd, 2016. Two 9 

### weeks from today is April 5th, 2016. It's 10 possible to get settlement finished and filed 11 with the court by April 8th, 2016. I could give 12 that as the deadline for the parties. 13 

### And then if that doesn't work, it 14 would be the same deadline for the parties to 15 contact the court informally and ask for a brief 16 extension. Say to April 15, 2016. 17 

### Because I can hold off, I think, in 18 making travel arrangements until April 15, 2016, 19 if settlement doesn't work out. 20 I know that's cutting it close to the 21 wire, if in fact settlement fails and you have to 22 get your witnesses all ready to go and travel

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-44338 

### 1 arrangements for yourself. So I'm just going to 2 put it out there for your consideration and see 3 what you think would work best for you and your 4 

### client. 5 

### Mr. Berman, starting with you. 6 

### MR. BERMAN: Yes, your proposal sounds 7 

### fine to me. 8 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: Mr. Longosz, same 9 

### question. 10 

### MR. LONGOSZ: That sounds prudent, 11 Your Honor. We would agree. 12 

### Would that mean that we know we have 13 a March 20, I believe 29, deadline for witness 14 

### lists and exhibits? And the Court would be 15 extending that deadline so that we would not 16 expend costs to our client, if in fact the case 17 will resolve itself in the next two weeks? 18 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: I'm looking at my 19 

### order. And let me just double check that due 20 date. 21 

### My original litigation procedural 22 order indicated on, that the witness lists would

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS ANDTRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-44339 

### 1 be due today, actually. And then

-- 2 

### MR. LONGOSZ: Your Honor, I believe 3 your third pre-hearing status conference order, 4 when we talked last time, Your Honor was able to 5 

### extend it to March 29. It's embedded in that 6 order. 7 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: You're absolutely 8 correct. Thank you very much. 9 

### So as of March 3rd, 2016, the court 10 had extended the March 22nd, 2016 deadline for 11 filing the witness lists and exhibits to March 12 29, 2016. 13 And, Mr. Longosz, your proposal is to 14 re-extend that to April 8th or to a later date? 15 MR. LONGOSZ: April 8th or April 15, 16 whichever is appropriate or that the Court agrees 17 

### to and is fine with Mr. Berman. Either one of 18 those days. But to extend whatever deadlines we 19 have into one of those dates. 20 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Why don't we do this, 21 and then I'll ask you both if it's acceptable. 22 Let's set April 8th, 2016 as a firm deadline for

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS ANDTRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-4433

### 10 1 filing any settlement papers with the court. 2 

### Let's set April 15, 2016 as the 3 

### deadline for filing witness lists and exhibits. 4 

### And then if you cannot get the date, if you 5 

### cannot, and I'm not suggesting that you 6 shouldn't, but if for some reason there's a huge 7 snow storm, tornado or something else that none 8 of us have control over that impedes your ability 9 to make that April 8, 2016 deadline, you at least 10 then have a few days, between April 8, 2016 and 11 April 15, 2016, to file the paperwork before your 12 witness lists and exhibits are due. 13 Mr. Berman, would that be acceptable 14 to you? 15 MR. BERMAN: Yes. 16 JUDGE SULLIVAN: And, Mr. Longosz? 17 

### MR. LONGOSZ: Yes. 18 

### JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. I will issue 19 

### a written order codifying that. That means that 20 we do not have any further pre-hearing status 21 conferences on our docket, between now and the 22 first day of hearing, which is May 4, 2016 at

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-443311 

### 1 9:00 a.m. in New York, New York. 2 I'll look forward to getting the 3 paperwork as soon as you can file it. If you can 4 file it, obviously before April 8, 2016, that 5 works even better for everyone involved. 6 

### My last question to you is, I know 7 that this is one of two cases, but it's my 8 understanding in the second case that there are, 9 

### let me just make sure. It looks like different 10 FAA counsel and also a different attorney from 11 Mr. Longosz's firm involved. 12 So, Mr. Longosz, I think you or a 13 colleague will be reappearing before me, this 14 afternoon at 2:30, on that other matter? 15 

### MR. LONGOSZ: I will be, Your Honor. 16 Ms. Sahr appeared last time because I was out of 17 

### town in my stead, but I will be appearing. And 18 Ms. Sahr and I have discussed the last status 19 that was before you, so I'm up to date. 20 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay, good. Then 21 with that, Mr. Berman, anything else we need to 22 address for your Client before we close today?

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., NW. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 (202) 234-443312

1 MR. BERMAN: No, Judge. Thank you. 2 JUDGE SULLIVAN: And, Mr. Longosz, 3 same question to you? 4 MR. LONGOSZ: No, Judge, thank you. 5 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. You're very 6 welcome. Good luck to you both in your final 7 settlement negotiation. 8 With that, we can go off the record 9 and I wish you all a good day. Thank you. 10 MR. BERMAN: Thank you. 11 MR. LONGOSZ: You too, bye. 12 JUDGE SULLIVAN: Bye. 13 (Whereupon, the above-entitled matter 14 went off the record at 1:42 p.m.) 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

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(202) 234-4433 15

Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. Washington DC www.nealrgross.com16 C E R T I F I C A T E

This is to certify that the foregoing transcript

In the matter of: Northeastern Aviation Corp. FAA-2014-0812 Before: DOT/OH

Date: 03-22-16

Place: teleconference

was duly recorded and accurately transcribed under my direction; further, that said transcript is a true and accurate record of the proceedings.

Court Reporter

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERSANDTRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE, N.W WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com