‘Third Pilot’ Denies Breach of Rule on Day of Fatal Crash

A private pilot from Buena Park accused by federal officials of flying into restricted air space minutes before last year’s midair collision of two other airplanes over Cerritos has argued that he never entered the restricted area on the day of the crash.

The so-called “third pilot,” Roland P. Furman, said through his lawyer on Wednesday that, contrary to those claims, he was actually flying outside the boundaries of the Los Angeles “terminal control area” (TCA) and thus was abiding by federal aviation regulations on the morning of Aug. 31, when another small plane entered the TCA and collided with an Aeromexico DC-9, killing 82 people.

Furman’s contention, detailed in a three-page statement given to The Times by Anaheim attorney George H. Savord, represents the pilot’s first public response to charges leveled against him more than three months ago by the Federal Aviation Administration after the Cerritos crash.

“Mr. Furman does dispute the claim that he was in TCA,” Savord said Wednesday. “We will obtain radar summary information that I’m confident will be evidentiary” in his support.

Furman, 55, formally appealed the FAA’s decision to the National Transportation Safety Board this week, Savord said. An engineer for Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton, Furman has declined repeated requests to be interviewed.

The FAA has announced that it plans to suspend Furman’s private pilot’s license for 120 days for allegedly entering the highly restricted TCA a few miles north of where the Cerritos air disaster occurred.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office is continuing an unprecedented criminal investigation of Furman’s flight on Aug. 31. Based in large measure on FAA findings, City Atty. James Hahn has asserted that Furman’s piloting may have represented “careless and reckless flying” under the state Public Utilities Code, a violation punishable by six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The most serious allegation facing Furman is that he entered the TCA surrounding Los Angeles International Airport without gaining prior permission from air traffic controllers. In the past, such intrusions involving other pilots have occurred almost daily in the Los Angeles Basin.

However, since the Cerritos disaster, FAA officials have vowed to crack down on flyers who violate the control area.

Shaped roughly like an inverted wedding cake, the TCA extends upward and outward in layers to about 30 miles east and west of the airport, and about 12 miles to the north and south.

Denies Accusation

On Aug. 31, while on a flight from Fullerton to Monterey, Furman allegedly penetrated the TCA about 25 miles east of LAX in a sector of the control area that dips to 2,500 feet, FAA officials have said. However, Furman contends that he was actually just east of the 2,500-foot sector, flying in uncontrolled airspace and well below another layer of the TCA that has a 4,000-foot base, Savord revealed Wednesday.

Members of the National Transportation Safety Board have said that two minutes before the Aug. 31 collision, Furman’s rented, single-engine Grumman suddenly appeared on radar as a “pop-up target” in the TCA. A controller then cleared Furman to fly through the area before returning his attention to the Aeromexico jet which, by then, had already collided with the Piper, according to FAA tape recordings of radio communications that morning.

By checking the second-by-second recordings of the controllers’ communications with both Furman and the Aeromexico captain, aviation authorities have discounted initial speculation that Furman may have distracted the controller just before the collision.

FAA Pursues Case

Nevertheless, the FAA has pursued its case against Furman, alleging that he flew into the control area without authorization and in a “careless or reckless” manner.

The agency had planned to suspend Furman’s license for 180 days, but after FAA attorneys recently discussed the case with him informally, they dismissed a charge that his rented plane had not been properly licensed. Accordingly, the suspension period was reduced to 120 days, according to FAA spokesman Russ Park.

Park said agency officials remain convinced that Furman entered the control area without permission.