FAA Urges Action Against 3rd Pilot in Area of Crash

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration have recommended fining or grounding a private pilot whose alleged violation of restricted airspace on Aug. 31 may have distracted an air traffic controller moments before a collision over Cerritos, an FAA spokesman said Monday.

Aviation officials said that Roland Paul Furman of Buena Park entered the airspace around Los Angeles International Airport without authorization. FAA spokesman Russ Park said that investigators from the agency’s local flight standards office on Friday forwarded to FAA attorneys a recommendation to cite Furman--either by suspending or revoking his private pilot’s certificate, or by fining him.

Under statute, the FAA cannot criminally prosecute a pilot accused of violating FAA regulations. The maximum civil penalty allowed is $1,000 per violation.

Park said that the FAA’s regional counsel, DeWitt Lawson, may reach a decision by week’s end on whether to cite Furman, who could not be reached for comment Monday.

The case is one of more than 3,500 alleged violations of federal aviation regulations that Lawson’s office has handled in the last five years.

Furman is accused of having entered the “terminal control area” (TCA) surrounding Los Angeles International Airport before gaining permission from controllers. In the past, such intrusions have occurred almost daily. Since the Cerritos air disaster, FAA officials have vowed to crack down on pilots who violate the control area, which extends outward in layers to about 30 miles east and west of the airport, and about 12 miles to the north and south.

“We’re treating this as a violation of the Los Angeles TCA,” Park said. “It is not being looked at in any other light whatsoever.”

However, Park said that Furman may also be cited under another federal regulation that addresses “careless and reckless” flying.

Members of the National Transportation Safety Board have said that two minutes before the collision of an Aeromexico jet and a four-seat Piper Archer over Cerritos, Furman’s small plane suddenly appeared on the radar screens of controllers who guide aircraft through the busy terminal control area. Furman then radioed Los Angeles air traffic controllers, requesting advisories on other planes in the area.

“It took the attention of the air traffic controller,” said safety board member John Lauber, who is heading the unfinished federal probe of the air crash.

Tape recordings showed that the controller talked with Furman, cleared him to fly through the terminal control area and then returned his attention to the Aeromexico jetliner, which already had been given clearance to enter the terminal control area on an approach to Los Angeles International.

When the controller turned back to the Aeromexico jet and tried to raise it, he got no response; it already had collided with the Piper.