Pilot

When roasted at 475 degrees, coffee beans are sometimes described as rich and full-bodied. But for the full-bodied person who is not so rich, unroasted coffee beans - green as the day they were picked - may hold the key to cheap and effective weight loss, new research suggests. In a study presented Tuesday at the American Chemical Society's spring national meeting in San Diego, 16 overweight young adults took, by turns, a low dose of green coffee bean extract, a high dose of the supplement, and a placebo.

Concerns about the Air Force's problem-plagued fleet of F-22 Raptor fighter jets led Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta to restrict flights of the aircraft because of problems with its oxygen systems that can cause its pilots to become disoriented mid-flight. In addition, Panetta wants a monthly progress report on the investigation into the root cause of the F-22's oxygen problems and ordered the Air Force to speed up the installation of an automatic backup oxygen system. Panetta also called on Navy and NASA personnel to find a solution.

Los Angeles will gay anybody up. In the two months since I moved here, I've bought a yellow convertible Mini Cooper, a pair of Guess jeans and started using one of those fitness balls as my desk chair. This is a town so gay that Republicans don't even run for mayor. So when ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson told Time magazine, in a story about the preponderance of gay TV show creators, that "if being gay makes you that talented, I'm going gay," I had to give it some serious thought.

NEW DELHI - Hundreds of Air India pilots did not report to work Thursday, the fourth day of a sickout to protest their treatment by management, a dispute that so far has resulted in the cancellation of numerous international flights and cost about 45 pilots their jobs. Officials said the Mumbai-based airline was forced to cancel more than 35 international flights this week, including several bound for New York and Frankfurt, because of the protest. India's aviation minister called the sickout illegal, the airline said it had fired some pilots, and a high court called for negotiations.

The Navy's new drone being tested near Chesapeake Bay stretches the boundaries of technology: It's designed to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, one of aviation's most difficult maneuvers. What's even more remarkable is that it will do that not only without a pilot in the cockpit, but without a pilot at all. The X-47B marks a paradigm shift in warfare, one that is likely to have far-reaching consequences. With the drone's ability to be flown autonomously by onboard computers, it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently.

Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman Corp. has quietly developed a new spy plane that can listen in on phone conversations, use high-powered radar and shoot live video footage as it flies at 30,000 feet above the Earth. And the spy plane, expected to be unveiled Monday, would operate with or without a pilot sitting in the cockpit. Until now, U.S. military aircraft have been designed to either have a pilot on board or be an unmanned drone. But Northrop's new plane, dubbed the Firebird, can switch from being a traditional aircraft to a drone with just a few modifications.

"Person of Interest," the new thriller from Jonathan Nolan and J.J. Abrams that premieres Thursday on CBS, proves, once again, that a great idea for a television show is not at all the same thing as a great television show. The central conceit of "Person of Interest," which smartly mines post-9/11 anxieties, is that crimes can now be detected before they are committed, as in 2002's "Minority Report," only without the damp and distressing pre-cogs. In their place is a computer program, designed by the mysterious Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson)

U.S. Coast Guard  and Navy forces have been dispatched to the scene of a plane crash off the coast of Florida. So far there is no word about the fate of the pilot believed to have become incapacitated at the controls. The small aircraft circled aimlessly in the skies for hours over the Gulf of Mexico as anxious air traffic controllers watched helplessly. Air traffic controllers apparently tried for hours to make contact with the pilot, but all attempts failed, pointing to the likelihood that the pilot had perhaps fallen unconscious at the controls, or perhaps suffered a heart attack.  FlightAware.com released the above image of the path of the plane, including the erratic and repetitive circular patterns it made over the Gulf of Mexico.

A pilot and movie producer who startled beachgoers by buzzing the Santa Monica Pier in a Soviet-era military jet was convicted Thursday of recklessly operating an aircraft. A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury found that David G. Riggs, 48, violated a rarely used section of the state public utilities code designed to protect life and property from careless and reckless pilots. Judge Harold Cherness is scheduled to sentence Riggs on Monday. The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Southwest Airlines flight attendants are considering a federal discrimination claim against a pilot whose cockpit rant about "gays and grannies and grandes" on his flight crew was accidentally broadcast to the control tower and other planes in the airspace over Texas. The incident happened on a March 25 flight from Austin to San Diego but was only made public Tuesday when KPRC-TV inHouston obtained the cockpit conversation and posted it on its website. Here is a link to the TV station's audio clip and a caution: Although some of the language has been "bleeped" out, there is other inappropriate and offensive language that is audible.

Some of the nation's top aviators are refusing to fly the radar-evading F-22 Raptor, a fighter jet with ongoing problems with the oxygen systems that have plagued the fleet for four years. At the risk of significant reprimand - or even discharge from the Air Force - fighter pilots are turning down the opportunity to climb into the cockpit of the F-22, the world's most expensive fighter jet. The Air Force did not reveal how many of its 200 F-22 pilots, who are stationed at seven military bases across the country, declined their assignment orders.

Dania Ramirez had a bike phobia. It all started when she was 7, racing her cousin down a steep hill in their native Dominican Republic when her wheels spiraled out of control. Ramirez flipped over her handlebars, spun three times in the air and earned a scar that she still sports today. But when she was offered a role as a bicycle messenger in "Premium Rush," she knew she'd have to face her lifelong fear. "I wanted the job, so I was like, 'Oh, yeah, I can ride a bike,'" the actress, 32, recalled.

Storm clouds hovered over the San Fernando Valley, but businessman Jack Engel was smiling as he pointed to a row of solar inverters at one of two commercial warehouses he owns in Sun Valley. Power was being generated despite the weather, no problem. His problem, he said, has been the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. "I like the idea of solar, but unfortunately my experience is that the DWP doesn't support it," said Engel, who has run a small manufacturing firm on Pendleton Street for four decades.

The voice of the Delta Air Lines captain on Flight 1063 on Thursday sounds beyond calm as he informs air traffic controllers: " Aaaand Delta 1063 has had an engine failure on the right engine, declaring an emergency due to a bird strike. " (Check out the audio above, posted online by NYC Aviation. ) The rest of the conversation tracks the emergency landing of the flight that had just taken off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and was bound for Los Angeles.

U.S. Coast Guard  and Navy forces have been dispatched to the scene of a plane crash off the coast of Florida. So far there is no word about the fate of the pilot believed to have become incapacitated at the controls. The small aircraft circled aimlessly in the skies for hours over the Gulf of Mexico as anxious air traffic controllers watched helplessly. Air traffic controllers apparently tried for hours to make contact with the pilot, but all attempts failed, pointing to the likelihood that the pilot had perhaps fallen unconscious at the controls, or perhaps suffered a heart attack.  FlightAware.com released the above image of the path of the plane, including the erratic and repetitive circular patterns it made over the Gulf of Mexico.

A small aircraft has crashed off Florida after it was seen aimlessly circling the Gulf of Mexico and repeated attempts by authorities to make contact with the pilot failed. At one point, military aircraft were called in for a possible attempt to intercept the troubled plane to protect public safety. The fate of the pilot -- the only person on board -- remains unclear. But there were some suggestions that the plane hit the water "gracefully," according to CNN commentators who were watching the dramatic situation unfold live.

The remains of a Navy pilot shot down at the onset of the Persian Gulf War -- the first U.S. combat casualty of the 1991 conflict -- have been recovered by Marines in western Iraq and identified by military specialists. The findings, based on dental records, appear to finally bring to an end the mystery of just what happened to Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher. Then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney had announced that Speicher was the first U.S.

A Jet Blue pilot who began ranting and acting erratically as his flight headed from New York to Las Vegas -- forcing the co-pilot to lock him out of the cockpit and make an emergency landing -- has been described as a seemingly content family man who once hoped to be an astronaut. Jet Blue identified the pilot as Clayton Osbon, who lives in Georgia but who maintains an apartment in the New York City borough of Queens because his flying base is New York. In a statement Tuesday night , it said that the captain of Flight 191 was receiving medical treatment.

The Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees announced Wednesday that it has reached a settlement with a Pasadena firm, Gateway Science & Engineering, over alleged billing improprieties. The company will continue to supervise the $450-million building program at Los Angeles Mission College. The district had alleged that Gateway approved payments to the construction company FTR International for work it had not performed at a 90,000-square-foot fitness center on the campus The project was plagued by delays and allegations of faulty workmanship, which were detailed in a Times series last year on the community college district's $6-billion campus reconstruction program.

Daniel Cavanaugh was standing in a Virginia Beach, Va., convenience store parking lot when he noticed the F/A-18 Hornet. The Navy jet appeared on path to land at Naval Air Station Oceana. But Cavanaugh instinctively knew something was wrong. It was flying awfully low. And the jet seemed slow and sluggish -- unusual for such a powerful piece of machinery. "He just got real low like he was going to land," Cavanaugh said of the pilot. Then, suddenly, "he dropped out of the sky. " Cavanaugh described what happened next to Virginia TV station WTKR:  "Boom.