Criminal Probe of Pilot Near Collision Dropped

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has dropped a criminal investigation it began in December into allegations that a private pilot had entered restricted airspace minutes before the Cerritos air disaster last summer.

The unusual investigation, which drew harsh criticism from the head of the Federal Aviation Administration earlier this month, was closed Friday after deputies concluded that the Buena Park pilot was “trying his best” to cooperate with air traffic controllers, Reginald Dunn, chief of the city attorney’s criminal branch, said Saturday.

“You had a pilot up there, unfamiliar with the area, struggling to the best of his ability to deal with the situation,” Dunn said. “We were able to discover that he did get in contact with at least three controllers. It does indicate that he was trying his best to let them know where he was and get proper directions.”

The pilot, Roland P. Furman, could not be reached for comment Saturday, but he has maintained that he was abiding by federal aviation regulations on the morning of Aug. 31, when another small plane entered restricted airspace and collided with an Aeromexico DC-9, killing all 67 people aboard the two planes and 15 on the ground.

In a written statement to The Times in January, George H. Savord, Furman’s attorney, said Furman was flying outside the boundaries of the Los Angeles “terminal control area” (TCA), the restricted airspace surrounding Los Angeles International Airport, on the day of the crash. Savord could not be reached for comment Saturday.

The FAA, which launched its own investigation of Furman, has announced that it intends to suspend Furman’s private pilot’s license for 120 days for allegedly entering the TCA a few miles north of where the crash occurred.

Aviation authorities have discounted initial speculation that Furman may have distracted the controller tracking the Aeromexico jet, but they continue to allege that he flew into the restricted area without authorization in a “careless or reckless” manner.

Russ Park, an FAA spokesman, said Saturday that Furman has appealed the proposed suspension to the National Transportation Safety Board, which has not yet set a hearing date.

The city attorney’s office based its investigation on tapes provided by the FAA of conversations between Furman and air traffic controllers, Dunn said. The tapes show that Furman did not offer controllers an exact description of his location, but they also show that the controllers never asked for one, he said. City investigators were unable to determine from the tapes if Furman actually entered the TCA, he said.

“Our investigation indicates that he was struggling to get proper directions from the controllers, but they never asked him for the crucial information that would have alerted him that he was approaching the TCA,” Dunn said. “He did not receive the assistance that might have been helpful.”

In a speech in Dallas, FAA chief Donald Engen criticized Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn for pursuing criminal prosecutions against pilots, saying such investigations could hamper FAA safety investigations by discouraging pilots from cooperating with authorities for fear of prosecution.

Dunn said the decision to drop the Furman investigation had nothing to do with Engen’s criticism.

“We feel if someone is criminally negligent or willfully entering the TCA, our office is going to aggressively look into the violation,” he said. “In this case, our investigation indicates neither was true.”