UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OFFICE OF HEARINGS

IN THE MATTER OF: PROFESSIONAL FLIGHT TRANSPORT, INCORPORATED

DOCKET NO: FAA-2015-0638

_____________________________________________________

TELECONFERENCE HEARING BEFORE THE HONORABLE J.E. SULLIVAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2015 10:09 A.M. HISTORIC JORDAN SPRINGS 1160 JORDAN SPRINGS ROAD STEPHENSON, VIRGINIA 22656In Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 2

1 APPEARANCES 2 ON BEHALF OF THE PLAINTIFF, 3 FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION: 4 CHRISTOPHER STEVENSON, ESQUIRE 5 FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION 6 OFFICE OF THE REGIONAL COUNSEL 7 P.O. BOX 20636 8 ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30320 9 TELEPHONE: 404.305.5208 10 FACSIMILE: 404.305.5223 11 E-MAIL: CHRIS.STEVENSON@FAA.GOV 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25In Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 3

1 TELECONFERENCE HEARING 2 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2015 3 10:09 A.M. 4 THE COURT: Do I have Mr. Stevenson on the 5 line? 6 MR. STEVENSON: Yes, Your Honor. 7 THE COURT: And do I have Mr. Goldstein on 8 the line? 9 THE COURT: I hear no response. Do I have Ms. 10 Andrea Mikus from County Court Reporters on the line? 11 COURT REPORTER: Yes, Your Honor. 12 THE COURT: Okay, Ms. Andrea are you ready? 13 COURT REPORTER: Yes, ma'am. 14 THE COURT: Okay, we're on the record in the 15 matter of Professional Flight Transport, Inc. This is 16 docket number FAA-20150638. Today is Tuesday, 17 September 22, 2015 and the parties are appearing today 18 for a Rule-16 litigation scheduling conference. The 19 Federal Aviation Administration, which I'll herein 20 after refer to as the FAA, is represented by its 21 attorney, Mr. Christopher Stevenson. The respondent, 22 Professional Flight Transport, Inc., is represented by 23 its attorney, Mr. Mark B. Goldstein. Mr. Goldstein is 24 not present and there's no explanation for his 25 absence.In Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 4

1 This particular scheduling conference was 2 setup on July 6, 2015 by order setting of Rule-16 3 litigation scheduling conference and directing the 4 parties to confer and file a Rule-26F Proposed 5 Discovery Plan. I'll not that pursuant to that July 6, 6 2015 order, the FAA filed a unilateral proposed Rule7 26F Plan on September 15, 2015 and noted in that 8 filing that the respondent had failed to cooperate and 9 failed to participate in a Rule-26F Scheduling 10 Conference. In addition to the physical record that 11 it's in the court file, I'll not that prior to 12 convening today's proceedings the Office of Hearings 13 attorney staff, Mr. Cody L. Smith, received a phone 14 call from FAA attorney, Mr. Christopher Stevenson 15 indicating that there was an update on the case. That 16 there might be a settlement at hand. So Mr. Stevenson 17 could you describe what the status of the case is at 18 this point. 19 MR. STEVENSON: With regards to the 20 settlement, I had extended an offer to the respondent 21 in July and this morning I received an email from 22 opposing counsel indicating that they were interested 23 in accepting that requesting a modification as to a 24 payment schedule, and I have emailed them back saying 25 that that modification is acceptable. So I would sayIn Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 5

1 that we have an agreement in principle, although we 2 have not formalized that through a written agreement 3 with all the details that that usually has. 4 THE COURT: Okay. What do you think would be 5 best for your client at this point? Since you're the 6 only party who has appeared today for this scheduled 7 conference. 8 MR. STEVENSON: It would be acceptable to my 9 client if Your Honor wanted to discontinue this. I 10 don't think that the settlement will fall apart. With 11 that said, in an ideal world a scheduling order would 12 be issued so that if for some reason it does fall 13 apart we've got that out there and I'll make sure that 14 the respondent has an attentive to promptly respond. 15 But I understand that the issue of such an order takes 16 up the Court's time and resources so. 17 THE COURT: I actually can do either one. So 18 it's entirely due to your preference at this point 19 because you're the only person who's appearing. The 20 Court has your proposed schedule, it's obviously not 21 objected to and the respondent has waived 22 participation given the respondent's lack of response 23 to you. The only question is whether or not that would 24 taint in any way your continued amiable settlement 25 discussions with your friend across the aisle.In Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 6

1 MR. STEVENSON: I don't believe that the 2 would taint the settlement discussions. All the thing 3 being equal, my client might prefer the scheduling 4 order be issued as I said so that it is out there in 5 the event that some issue comes up if we're finalizing 6 the settlement. 7 THE COURT: Okay. Well, then let's talk about 8 that for just a minute and I'm going to pull that 9 draft order up on my computer screen so that I have 10 it. I'm happy to adopt your October 8, 2015 deadline 11 for initial disclosures and I typically will run the 12 general discovery to begin either the same day or 13 approximately a week later. So if it's acceptable to 14 you, Mr. Stevenson, I'll just change your proposed 15 October 15, I'm sorry, October 13, 2015 date to 16 October 15, 2015, and that will be a seven-day hiatus 17 between the initial disclosures being provided and the 18 general discovery beginning. Would that be acceptable 19 to you. 20 MR. STEVENSON: It would, Your Honor. 21 THE COURT: Okay. I will accept the joint 22 deadline of November 27, 2015 for the exchange of the 23 initial expert closures. My question to you is what 24 date do you prefer to have for the exchange of expert 25 rebuttal reports, if any? Usually it comes after theIn Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 7

1 initial expert closures. 2 MR. STEVENSON: I guess I've been 3 contemplated that as part of the March 25, 2016, but 4 not that you mention it that may be helpful to have 5 during the deposition period if necessary. So perhaps 6 near the end of December so that there would be the 7 opportunity to adjust deposition notices as 8 appropriate before the January 15th deadline assuming 9 that that deadline is adopted by the Court. 10 THE COURT: Okay, why don't we tighten that 11 up a little bit and just say December 18, 2015 for 12 expert rebuttal disclosures because that would give 13 you and your friend across the aisle plenty of time to 14 decide whether you need then to depose anyone that's 15 an expert. I'm happy to adopt the December 1, 2015, 16 beginning of the deposition period since you have both 17 expert and fact witnesses and fact witnesses can come 18 and be deposed prior to expert, experts, excuse me. 19 I'm happy to adopt your January 15, 2016 date for as a 20 deadline to issue deposition notices or to request 21 subpoenas. I'll adopt your March 11, 2016 date for the 22 end of your deposition period. I am going to go to my 23 calendar really quickly so that I can continue on into 24 the 2016 period. Okay. May I ask you a question? Mr. 25 Stevenson, you have continued your written discoveryIn Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 8

1 request into March 25, 2016, oh, I see what you've 2 done. Okay, I'm happy to adopt that date. And I'm 3 happy to adopt all other dates and your materials that 4 you submitted, page two of the two-page FAA Proposed 5 Schedule. 6 The question I have then is the time period 7 that we need to set for the telephone motion 8 conference of the dispositive motions, you had 9 mentioned early 2016 as well as a hearing date. Let's 10 talk about the hearing date first. How many days do 11 you think this case might take if the parties don't 12 settle? 13 MR. STEVENSON: I would anticipate it taking 14 two days. 15 THE COURT: Would that include the 16 respondent's case in its entirety or just yours? 17 MR. STEVENSON: I believe that that would, it 18 would cover both of ours. It's sufficient enough of a 19 case that I would expect it to be done in two but I 20 would usually anticipate the Court scheduling it for 21 three just to be safe. 22 THE COURT: Okay, we'll schedule it for 23 three. Let's talk about the week of, the month of 24 October. I currently have most of that, my first full 25 open week is October 24th. Can you take a look at yourIn Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 9

1 calendar and see if that would work for you? 2 MR. STEVENSON: It would, Your Honor. 3 THE COURT: Okay. So is this a case that 4 would be in Fort Lauderdale or some other area? 5 MR. STEVENSON: I would anticipate this being 6 located in the vicinity of the respondent. 7 THE COURT: Well, the respondent's attorney 8 is, the address I have and that's in Boca Raton, 9 Florida. Can you tell me where the respondent is 10 located? 11 MR. STEVENSON: The respondent is located in 12 Fort Lauderdale. 13 THE COURT: Okay. Then let's plan on an 14 October trial in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and let's 15 plan on Tuesday, October 25, 2016, Wednesday, October 16 26, 2016, and Thursday, October 27, 2016 for the trial 17 dates with travel time for Monday, October 24, 2016 18 and Friday, October 28, 2016. And since we've set the 19 day of the trial for October 25, 2016 as the beginning 20 date, let's talk about a telephone motion conference 21 on dispositive motion sometime in early August 2016. 22 Why don't we look at the week of August 8th, just to 23 start off with. Looking at your calendar, Mr. 24 Stevenson, is there any particular day or time during 25 that week that might work for you? And if not we canIn Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 10

1 go to a different week. 2 MR. STEVENSON: I will not be available on 3 Monday, August 8th or the morning of Tuesday, August 4 9th, but I would be available the remainder of that 5 week. 6 THE COURT: Would setting the matter on 7 Wednesday or Thursday work for you? And if so, which 8 date is preferable? 9 MR. STEVENSON: Either of those days would 10 work and Thursday the 11th would be preferable. 11 THE COURT: Okay. Do you have a preferred 12 time of day? Morning or afternoon? 13 MR. STEVENSON: Morning. 14 THE COURT: Okay. How about Thursday, August 15 11, 2016 at 10:00 A.M. in the morning? 16 MR. STEVENSON: That would be perfect. 17 THE COURT: Okay. Then let's see if there's 18 anything else we need to address. I don't see anything 19 else here that we need to address. Is there anything 20 else that we need to cover for your client that we 21 haven't already discussed? 22 MR. STEVENSON: No, Your Honor. 23 THE COURT: Okay. Then I will thank you very 24 much for your time today and for your Rule-26F 25 Unilateral Materials. It was very helpful in theIn Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 11

1 Court's preparation for today's conference. I'll look 2 forward to any settlement if the parties do in fact 3 resolve this matter, but in the interim I'll be 4 issuing a litigation order, if not this afternoon, 5 than certainly early tomorrow morning. With that I'm 6 going to thank you again. We can go off the record and 7 I wish ya'll a good day. 8 MR. STEVENSON: Thank you, Your Honor. 9 THE COURT: Thank you. Bye-bye. 10 (WHEREUPON, the Teleconference Hearing was concluded 11 at 10:25 A.M.) 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25In Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 12

1 STIPULATION 2 3 The foregoing matter was taken on the date, and at 4 the time and place set out on the title page hereof. 5 6 It was requested that the matter be taken by the 7 reporter and that the same be reduced to typewritten 8 form. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 251 2 3 4

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25 24 23 22 **CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER AND SECURE ENCRYPTED**

I, **Andrea F. Mikus** , do hereby certify that the foregoing matter was reported by stenographic and/or mechanical means, that same was reduced to written form, that the transcript prepared by me or under my direction, is a true and accurate record of same to the best of my

This transcript and certificate have been digitally the action filed or its outcome. knowledge and ability; that there is no relation nor

parties hereto, nor financial or otherwise interest in employment by any attorney or counsel employed by the

Court Reporter **SIGNATURE AND DELIVERY OF CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT**

signed and securely delivered through our encryption

server. IN WITNESS HEREOF, I have here unto set my hand this day of , .

**Andrea F. Mikus** 24th SEPTEMBER 2015In Re: Professional Flight Transport September 22, 2015 VR # 2713-1 Page 14

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