Federal Aviation Administration Spokesman

Officials at the Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control Center in Hampton sent three controllers home for not wearing socks to work. "At no time was the control of air traffic affected one bit," Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jack Barker said.

One person was killed Friday evening when a small plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in West Los Angeles, fire officials said. The pilot of the single-engine Cessna 210 was returning to Santa Monica Airport and declared an emergency shortly before crashing about 6 p.m., said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor. The plane came down near the intersection of Westwood and Olympic boulevards. It did not hit any buildings despite crashing in a community dense with homes.

A Piedmont Airlines Boeing 737 carrying 102 people experienced a broken oil line Wednesday but made a safe emergency landing at Washington National Airport, using only one of its two engines, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

A small plane plunged into the Mohawk River with three people aboard, and at least two were found dead, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said. The Piper Cherokee went down near Scotia around 2:30 p.m., shortly after taking off from the nearby Mohawk Valley Airport, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. Scotia is about 20 miles northwest of Albany.

A Northwest Airlines crew had to postpone their takeoff when a group of eight deer strolled across the runway. The crew of another plane noticed the deer Friday and radioed Kansas City International Airport's control tower, which notified the Northwest pilots, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Bob Raynesford said.

A review of radar tapes of a UFO sighting over Alaska on Nov. 17 failed to confirm an object in the flight path of a Japan Air Lines cargo jet, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said. The FAA has concluded that the unidentified object on radar now appears to be an unexplained split image of the JAL Boeing 747 and not a separate object, Paul Steucke, FAA spokesman, said.

A small plane plunged into the Mohawk River with three people aboard, and at least two were found dead, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said. The Piper Cherokee went down near Scotia around 2:30 p.m., shortly after taking off from the nearby Mohawk Valley Airport, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. Scotia is about 20 miles northwest of Albany.

A United Airlines Boeing 767 reported a problem with its ailerons but landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport today, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said. United's Flight 7 landed without incident at 11:21 a.m., Fred O'Donnell said. Ailerons are control surfaces on aircraft wings that maintain stability. They are distinct from flaps, which are used to increase lift.

Authorities identified the victims of a weekend light plane crash near Cuyama in San Luis Obispo County as Thomas Frazier of Carmel and Joann Quilty of the Carmel area, both 38. The plane, a single-engine Cessna 172, went down in hilly terrain off California 166, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said. Because the pilot had not filed a flight plan, the exact circumstances of the crash could not immediately be determined.

A commuter airplane carrying 12 passengers and a crew of two disappeared from radar screens today while flying in fog over mountainous western Virginia, and a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said it had "crashed or crash-landed." A helicopter search was launched for the Henson Airlines twin-engine Beech 99, which had taken off from Baltimore. The FAA spokesman said the plane disappeared off radar while approaching the Shenandoah Valley airport.

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.

A twin-engine plane with two people aboard landed safely at Van Nuys Airport after an equipment failure forced the plane to return to the airport after taking off Tuesday morning. The pilot of the privately owned Cessna 310 reported landing gear difficulty just after 11 a.m., said Harold Johnson, an airport spokesman. The plane landed safely about 12:20 p.m., and both passengers walked away from it. It landed on both rear landing wheels and, before it came to a stop, plopped down on its nose.

A small plane struck another craft as it was landing Friday night at McCall Municipal Airport, killing a pilot and his grandsons, ages 1 and 6, and critically injuring his 2-year-old grandson, who was pulled from the burning wreckage by the landing plane's two occupants, officials said. Both planes -- Cessna 172s -- exploded, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. Authorities identified the dead pilot as Bill Keating, 52. His surviving grandson was flown to the University of Utah Hospital's Burn Center in critical condition, authorities said.

After three failed attempts to land at Camarillo Airport, three Ventura County residents died when their plane crashed into a fog-shrouded hillside near the Conejo Grade, authorities said Wednesday. Pilot Hollis C. White, 58, of Camarillo, and passengers Don Dicus, 51, of Camarillo, and Kenneth D. McMillan, 37, of Thousand Oaks, were returning home from a business and golf trip in Riverside County when the crash occurred shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday five miles east of Camarillo Airport.

A United Airlines Boeing 767 reported a problem with its ailerons but landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport today, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said. United's Flight 7 landed without incident at 11:21 a.m., Fred O'Donnell said. Ailerons are control surfaces on aircraft wings that maintain stability. They are distinct from flaps, which are used to increase lift.

A Northwest Airlines crew had to postpone their takeoff when a group of eight deer strolled across the runway. The crew of another plane noticed the deer Friday and radioed Kansas City International Airport's control tower, which notified the Northwest pilots, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Bob Raynesford said.

An Alaska Airlines stretch DC-9 had to take evasive action just after taking off from Long Beach Municipal Airport to avoid a collision with another plane, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said. No one was hurt aboard Flight 107, but the FAA spokesman said it bypassed a scheduled stop at Portland and went on to Seattle so its engines could be examined for possible damage caused by the sudden acceleration. There was no immediate report on what inspectors found.