JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- To settle a lawsuit claiming that air traffic controllers failed to give a pilot help making an emergency landing in December 2005, the Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to pay $3.75 million.

Gary Tillman, his daughter, Hannah, and her friend Anna Kipp died when the plane went down in the Atlantic Ocean off Vilano Beach. Another friend survived the crash.

Tillman, piloting a small plane toward a pre-Christmas vacation in the Bahamas, radioed air traffic controllers that he was having engine problems and asked for help making a beach landing. According to the Tillmans' attorney, the controllers tried to get him fly further south to the St. Augustine Airport.

"When he had that problem, he had one request. That's all he had," attorney Woody Wilner said. "He said 'Please turn me to the beach, because you know where I am. You have radar, I don't.'"

After being told to try to make it to St. Augustine, Tillman's made one last transmission:

"We're not going to make it," Tillman radioed. Minutes later, a FAA controller announced, "No. 22 Lima just crashed.

Anna Kipp and another friend, Rachel Hostetler, got out and were eventually pulled from the water. Kipp died at the hospital. Hostetler survived.

The Tillmans were found several weeks later when a shrimping boat snagged part of the wreckage.

Wilner said the settlement brings some satisfaction and closure for the families.

"Nothing can bring back Mr. Tillman or his daughter, Hanna," Wilner said.

Wilner believes everyone would have survived if the controller had directed the plane east, instead of south.

"That's why we pay controllers: to help these airplanes. And when they run into problems, those controllers have to know, look, airplanes don't float, You've got to get them over the beach," Wilner said.

Wilner said the families the Tillman family was given $3 million and the Kipp family $750,000.

The FAA told Channel 4 it will not comment on the settlement now because it has not been finalized by the court.