Ore. man sues U.S. after plane collides with his sports car

PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon man has sued over a traffic accident that involved an unlikely pair of vehicles — his Lamborghini and a small plane piloted by FBI agents.

The propeller from the Cessna airplane mangled the driver's side of the black Lamborghini that Marlowe Treit had given himself as a 60th birthday present in 1998.

Filed earlier this month, Treit's lawsuit against the U.S. government accuses the pilots of negligence in the May 2006 collision, and seeks $105,500 in damages.

According to federal court filings, the accident happened on a road that goes through the Aurora Airport — about 25 miles south of downtown Portland.

Two FBI agents, John Jeffries and Robert Brockmeyer, were co-piloting the plane, according to the National Transportation Safety Board's report on the incident.

One of the agents wrote in a report filed with the transportation safety board that the plane was "moving down the taxiway about to enter our hangar area, moving at about a fast walk and crossing a narrow inner taxiway perpendicular to us when the aircraft crunched to a sudden stop.

"Out the left side window of the aircraft I saw a small black sports car dart from under the prop moving to my left, gushing fluid," the unidentified agent wrote.

Treit, a licensed pilot who lives in Aurora and owns a business at the airport, claims he had the right of way and that the pilot should have seen him.

But the transportation safety board determined that Treit and the agents shared blame for the wreck. Investigators said both failed "to maintain an adequate visual lookout," which contributed to the wreck.

Treit was not injured, but his car hasn't been driven since.

A spokeswoman for the FBI's Portland field office declined to comment about the incident, citing the lawsuit.