Co Pilot

The excellent article about David Tallichet and his B-17 (View, Nov. 8) cleared up a mystery that haunted me for years. I read that he flew his combat tour as a B-17 co-pilot. I am astonished because, up to the very moment of the reading, I was under the impression that there were no co-pilots in World War II. Through the years I've known many of the fliers, but they were always the pilot of the bomber. I ask you, therefore, to consider the following carefully. Have you ever met an airman who said he was a co-pilot in the Great Struggle?

NEW YORK - Minutes after a JetBlue flight took off from New York for Las Vegas, the pilot began muttering things that didn't make sense to his co-pilot. He started talking about the need to "focus," lamented that "things just don't matter," and yelled at air traffic controllers to keep quiet. At some point, Capt. Clayton Osbon purportedly told his first officer that "we're not going to Las Vegas" and launched into a sermon. That set off a chain of events that culminated in a federal charge of interfering with a flight crew being filed against Osbon on Wednesday, a day after he was tackled by passengers at 35,000 feet and later carried off to a hospital.

Having just lost a cousin in the EgyptAir crash of Oct. 31, I was disappointed at the insensitivity of The Times' Nov. 17 front-page article suggesting suicide by a co-pilot. The suggestion demonstrates unfamiliarity with both Islam and the Egyptian culture. None of the alleged religious statements made by the co-pilot are categorized as prayers for "facing death." In fact, it is impressive that the co-pilot's religious convictions would be expressed in such a crisis situation. Moreover, it is incompatible for a man of such devotion to take his own life knowing that Islam gives that right to none but God. People of other faiths might have said, "Oh my God!"

Three crew members escaped from a civilian refueling aircraft that exploded into flames Wednesday evening during an attempted takeoff at Point Mugu Naval Air Station. The Boeing 707 aircraft was nearly filled to capacity with 150,000 pounds of fuel that stoked intense flames and thick clouds of dark smoke that billowed for miles as firefighters tried to control the blaze, officials said. A base spokesman said the crew members — a pilot, co-pilot and navigator — worked for Omega Aerial Refueling Services, which contracts with the Navy to refuel aircraft.

A struggle between the co-pilot and an armed security guard caused an Afghan airliner to crash in eastern Iran with the loss of six lives, Tehran Radio said. The broadcast quoted Deputy Prime Minister Alireza Moayyeri as denying earlier Iranian and Afghan reports that the plane was hijacked and forced to Iran. Moayyeri, heading an official investigation into Sunday's crash outside the city of Zabol near the southern Afghan border, said that the Ariana Afghan Airlines turboprop plane was carrying 39 people and that 33 survived.

The Navy's newest attack submarine, the New Hampshire, was christened in Groton by the widow of a pilot killed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "I believe I'm looking at heroes," Cheryl McGuinness of Portsmouth, N.H., told its crew. "You all are my heroes." Thomas McGuinness was co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, which was flown into the World Trade Center's north tower. The 7,800-ton, 337-foot nuclear-powered submarine will have a crew of 134.

A plane crashed into the sea off Venezuela with 14 people on board, including eight Italians and a Swiss citizen. There was no immediate report on casualties. Search teams fanned out by air and sea to look for the twin-engine plane, which left Simon Bolivar International Airport near Caracas and hit the sea about 24 miles from Los Roques islands, said Gen. Antonio Rivero, Venezuela's emergency management director. Rivero said the five Venezuelans aboard included the pilot and co-pilot.

A FedEx cargo plane on its way from Phoenix to Long Beach landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday after a piece of the aircraft fell to the ground after takeoff, authorities said. Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said the twin-engine Airbus 306 with a pilot and co-pilot aboard landed about 5:30 p.m. after being diverted from Long Beach Airport. An inspection found that an air conditioning access panel had fallen off the plane, Gregor said.

Four colorful balloons rose into the desert sky at dawn Sunday in a belated start of the Gordon Bennett distance race in hopes that high-altitude wind currents will carry them into the Midwest. About 3,000 people watched as the first helium balloon, the bright yellow Rosie O'Grady, floated up from Ruth Hardy Park at 6:45 a.m., about 10 hours after gusty winds forced officials to scrub Saturday night's scheduled departure. The other three balloons took off over the next hour.

The pilots of the United Airlines jet that limped to an emergency landing after a gaping hole ripped open on one side were convinced that a bomb had exploded on board as they struggled to stay aloft, government documents showed Wednesday. The dramatic 25-minute return of United Flight 811 to Honolulu from 22,000 feet over the Pacific on Feb. 24 was tracked closely by air traffic controllers who at times feared that the jetliner would have to ditch in the ocean, according to a transcript of communications between the plane and controllers.

A FedEx cargo plane on its way from Phoenix to Long Beach landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday after a piece of the aircraft fell to the ground after takeoff, authorities said. Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said the twin-engine Airbus 306 with a pilot and co-pilot aboard landed about 5:30 p.m. after being diverted from Long Beach Airport. An inspection found that an air conditioning access panel had fallen off the plane, Gregor said.

The pilot of a crippled US Airways jetliner made a split-second decision to put down in the Hudson River because trying to return to the airport after birds knocked out both engines could have led to a "catastrophic" crash in a populated neighborhood, he told investigators Saturday. Capt. Chesley B.

The Navy's newest attack submarine, the New Hampshire, was christened in Groton by the widow of a pilot killed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "I believe I'm looking at heroes," Cheryl McGuinness of Portsmouth, N.H., told its crew. "You all are my heroes." Thomas McGuinness was co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, which was flown into the World Trade Center's north tower. The 7,800-ton, 337-foot nuclear-powered submarine will have a crew of 134.

A plane crashed into the sea off Venezuela with 14 people on board, including eight Italians and a Swiss citizen. There was no immediate report on casualties. Search teams fanned out by air and sea to look for the twin-engine plane, which left Simon Bolivar International Airport near Caracas and hit the sea about 24 miles from Los Roques islands, said Gen. Antonio Rivero, Venezuela's emergency management director. Rivero said the five Venezuelans aboard included the pilot and co-pilot.

Army Chief Warrant Officer Cornell Chao made friendships to last a lifetime. The Los Angeles native was a quiet, steady guy who in 18 years in the Army fought two wars in Iraq, rising from infantry grunt to the pilot of an Apache helicopter. He was spared once: In 2003, an artillery round exploded just behind his head during a gun battle, and Chao survived only because an M-16 he had placed behind his seat took the impact. But on Jan.

The pilot of a small business jet bound for Van Nuys Airport suffered head injuries amid heavy turbulence Thursday night, but the craft landed safely at the San Fernando Valley facility after the co-pilot took over the controls. Officials said the pilot, identified as a 50-year-old man, appeared to have suffered only a small cut and a bump and was in good spirits after the landing. He was, however, taken to Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City for evaluation.

As 19 hijackers made their way along the concourses at three East Coast airports on Sept. 11, bent on executing the deadliest terrorist attack in history, they were subjecting the U.S. aviation security system to its most critical test. At almost every step along the way, the system posed no challenge to the terrorists--not to their ability to purchase tickets, to pass security checkpoints while carrying knives and cutting implements nor to board aircraft.

E. Hamilton Lee, who was flying planes just 13 years after the Wright Brothers took flight at Kitty Hawk, celebrated his 100th birthday Saturday by flying as co-pilot on a DC-3 from Ontario to Van Nuys Airport. "Good, good, good," but "a little rough," said Lee, known in aviation circles as the dean of airline pilots, as he emerged from the plane, his trademark cigar dangling from his mouth. Lee, the first civilian pilot to fly the U.S.

Retired Brig. Gen. Robert L. Scott, the World War II flying ace who told of his exploits in his book "God is My Co-Pilot," has died. He was 97. Scott died Monday at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Ga. The cause of death was not announced. A fighter ace in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II, Scott won three Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Silver Stars and five Air Medals. He was called home to travel the country giving speeches for the war effort.

It takes a certain amount of audacity to found a religion. Ford Vox does not look audacious. A tall, slightly stooped medical student, Vox speaks in a mumble and rarely lifts his eyes. But if he lacks confidence, that only makes him all the more qualified to lead his flock because Vox, 28, has created a religion for people who know only that they know nothing. Universists might believe in God, or might not. (Personally, Vox thinks he does.) The only dogma they must accept is uncertainty.