Private Airplanes

Sen. Dianne Feinstein offers plenty of tips on how California households can combat global warming, such as carpooling and running only a full dishwasher. But one bit of information Feinstein declines to share is the number of times that she flew last year on her husband's Gulfstream jet, which burns much more fuel per passenger-mile than commercial airliners. Gov.

If you're feeling steamed at the airlines for how they've been treating passengers, you might want to save some outrage for those who fly on private jets, two advocacy groups suggest. As most travelers endure long security lines, increasing flight delays and extra charges for checked baggage, they are helping subsidize far more elegant travel for a privileged few, according to a report to be released today by Washington-based organizations Essential Action and the Institute for Policy Studies.

The pilots of two World War II-era aircraft escaped serious injury or death Saturday afternoon when their biplanes collided about a mile off the coast of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, authorities said. The midair accident occurred about 3 p.m. when the propeller of a 1942 Boeing Stearman apparently clipped the back side of a 1940 Waco not long after it and a third vintage plane left Torrance Municipal Airport, officials said.

Regarding Charles Lane's article (Editorial Pages, Oct. 1), "Freedom of the Skies Is Costly," I don't usually take the time to write to a newspaper about its articles, but Lane's "solution" and "facts" to justify his position about general aviation were just too much to let pass. I won't argue with the accuracy of the statistics that he used to support his position, but his basic premise is highly suspect. For example, he states that the airline passengers are subsidizing the private sector.

A search is on in the Moroccan countryside for a private American plane missing since Tuesday with three men on board, the aircraft's owner said. Michael Douglas, the producer and actor, issued a statement Friday in Los Angeles saying the aircraft, a single-engine piper Cherokee, was scouting sites throughout southern Morocco for filming of the 20th Century Fox film "Jewel of the Nile." He is producing the film with his brother Joel, who had been supervising the production crew in Morocco.

A Jet America MD-80 making a landing approach at John Wayne Airport on Thursday came within 200 feet of an unidentified private plane and had to swerve to avoid it, the Federal Aviation Administration reported. The jet, en route from Chicago and Las Vegas with 59 passengers aboard, landed without incident and there were no injuries, officials said. The near-miss occurred about 4 1/2 miles north of the airport when the private plane crossed the airliner's path about 500 feet ahead.

The irony of the week is that days after Payne Stewart's death in a private plane crash, the PGA Tour was busy helping players line up private planes to fly to Orlando, Fla., for today's memorial service for Stewart. Of course, private airplanes are the rule--not the exception--for professional golfers these days. And it must be pointed out that the deaths of Stewart and five others on Monday were clearly a tragic accident, a fluke.