Pilots

It is about 4:30 p.m. May 24, and there is a brush fire in the area of the Norwegian Grade between Moorpark and Thousand Oaks. Our Fire Department is out there with trucks, tankers, bulldozers, CDF crews, helicopters and air tankers. Guess who else is out there! Private planes, mostly single-engine ones, whose pilots appear to be playing in the thermals around the fire! I live on the bluff of Peach Hill. My attention was drawn to this when I heard an airplane go over our house--and it sounded low. I guessed that it was probably a Fire Department aircraft, but when I went to look I saw a single-engine plane heading toward the smoke cloud.

A federal judge on Thursday acquitted two Salvadoran airline pilots on charges of attempting to smuggle a cache of firearms to El Salvador. Overturning a jury verdict that convicted the two men, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. agreed with defense lawyers that the evidence did not support the verdict. Francisco Jerez, 31, and Francisco Panameno, 28, both pilots for TACA International Airlines, were charged with conspiracy, attempted export of unlicensed munitions and furnishing false identification in connection with their attempt to take seven .9 mm pistols and a .12 gauge shotgun aboard a midnight flight from Los Angeles International Airport to El Salvador.

In keeping with the city's aerospace tradition, civic leaders are set to unveil granite monuments honoring five test pilots at a induction ceremony Saturday. The newly installed monuments will be added to 45 others on the city's Aerospace Walk of Honor along Lancaster Boulevard, organizers said. The walk was established in 1990.

I would like to correct some remarks made in a letter published in The Times April 13 in response to my views on pilot training ("Former Test Pilot Takes On the FAA Over Air Safety"). James L. Hayhurst, a first officer for PSA, says I display "considerable ignorance about the real issues affecting our air transportation system." I do have some knowledge about our air transportation system and the training of airline pilots--especially those of PSA. I was in charge of Lockheed flight operations during the time PSA received its first Lockheed Model 188 Electras, and I personally assigned my best flight crew instructors (former airline pilots)

An Army flight instructor, defending the night-vision goggles used by helicopter pilots, testified Tuesday that a series of fatal nighttime crashes may have stemmed from efforts by the military to ask more of the goggles than they were designed to deliver. "Today's aviators need to be protected from themselves," Army Reserve flight instructor David E. Broadnax told the House Armed Services subcommittee on investigations.

The Homeland Security Department is adding three surveillance drone aircraft to a domestic fleet chiefly used to patrol the border with Mexico even though officials acknowledge they don't have enough pilots to operate the seven Predators they already possess. The new drones are being purchased after lobbying by members of the so-called drone caucus in Congress, many from districts in Southern California, a major hub of the unmanned aircraft industry. "We didn't ask for them," said a Homeland Security official who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak frankly.

BEIRUT - A day after Syria shot down a Turkish jet, officials from the neighboring countries moved to tamp down tensions Saturday as they mounted a joint rescue operation for two pilots still missing in the eastern Mediterranean. The incident dramatically escalated tensions between two countries whose relations were already severely strained because of Turkey'stacit support of the 16-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad. But there was a notable lack of bellicose rhetoric Saturday emanating from both capitals, Ankara and Damascus, underscoring the explosive potential of the incident.

The pilot presumed to be at the controls of a private plane that crashed in heavy fog near Fullerton Airport, killing three people, was not qualified to make an instrument landing, federal aviation officials said Tuesday.

Four months after a fatal commuter plane crash that pointed to holes in pilot competency, the federal government Tuesday launched an investigation of the nation's smaller airlines. The Federal Aviation Administration's vow to step up inspections of how regional airlines train -- and work -- their pilots was issued under the pressure of congressional hearings that begin today. The hearings will explore pilot workforce issues at regional carriers and the FAA's scrutiny of airline safety standards.

Responding to U.S. reports that a missing American pilot from the Gulf War may have survived the crash of his aircraft and been detained by the Iraqis, Baghdad divulged details of a 1995 search of a crash site in its western desert carried out by the U.S. military and the International Committee of the Red Cross. The team found part of the wreckage of Lt. Cmdr.