In the appeal of a Florida federal district court's
granting of summary judgment to a Department of Defense maintenance
contractor arising from a fatal crash of an Air Force F-16 from
Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida into the Gulf of Mexico, an 11th
Circuit panel affirmed and unanimously held that: (1) the Death on
the High Seas Act (“DOHSA”) governed the wrongful death
action; (2) DOHSA provided the exclusive remedy and preempted all
state law claims; and (3) the civilian maintenance contractor, PAE
Worldwide Incorporated (“PAE”), was entitled to the
protection of the government contractor defense related to
maintenance performed at Tyndall Air Force Base. However, two panel
members wrote a separate concurring opinion to explain that while
they “agree that we must follow existing precedent to hold
that DOHSA applies to (and thereby supplies the exclusive
wrongful-death remedy for) any claim arising out of a death
occurring on the high seas—even where, as here,
