Charges Against Airman Involve Spy Plane Data

The Air Force, in disclosing for the first time the four specific espionage charges against an airman who was arrested last week, confirmed Thursday that he is accused of trying to give Soviet agents a document about the sophisticated SR-71 spy aircraft.

Describing the document as classified, the Air Force would release only its title--the Strategic Air Command tactical doctrine for SR-71 crews.

The military does not discuss the needle-nosed SR-71, an unarmed aircraft that is used for long-range surveillance missions and flies at three times the speed of sound.

Airman 1st Class Bruce D. Ott, 25, also is charged with attempting to pass a “recall roster” to Soviet agents, according to Sgt. Daryl E. Green, spokesman at Beale Air Force Base, home base of the SR-71 where the suspect was stationed. Such rosters contain names of military personnel and ways to contact them in case of an emergency.

Ott, of Yuba City, also was charged with violating Air Force regulations by contacting Soviet agents between Jan. 7 and Jan. 22, the date of his arrest, without obtaining proper clearance and with trying to pass the classified documents “for the purpose of injuring the United States or benefiting a foreign power.”

Both allegations involving the attempted release of documents carry a maximum penalty of death, the Air Force has said, though no decision has been made on whether to seek Ott’s execution. The government has said that no documents actually changed hands.

Ott is the first defendant in the spate of espionage cases who faces trial by military court under military law and the first to be charged under a recently enacted statute authorizing the execution of military personnel involved in espionage.