FAA May Ground Pilot Who Flew Copter Over Crash Site

The pilot of a television news helicopter should be grounded for six months for allegedly hovering above rescuers last week as they combed the wreckage of Dean Paul Martin’s jet fighter, the Federal Aviation Administration determined Monday.

Robert Tur, 26, who flies for and owns Los Angeles News Service, is accused of having ignored a temporary minimum altitude restriction that was imposed where the remains of Martin and his weapons officer, Capt. Ramon Ortiz, were found Wednesday.

Martin, 35, a California Air National Guard captain and the eldest son of entertainer Dean Martin, and Ortiz, 39, were killed on a training mission March 21 when their F-4C Phantom slammed into the side of an 11,500-foot mountain northwest of Palm Springs.

Authorities said news media helicopter pilots covering the story were instructed to fly no lower than 5,000 feet above the crash site and that all but Tur complied. He allegedly flew to within 150 and 200 feet of the ground just as rescuers began searching.

“We had landed a crew of 20 people whose immediate mission was to find (survivors),” said Maj. Steven Mensick, an Air National Guard spokesman in Sacramento. “They were fanning out 20 feet apart. . . . These people needed to hear each other--and then here comes this helicopter right above them. If someone had been alive on the ground, we might not have been able to communicate with them or with each other.

“We told (Tur) to get the hell out of there and he disregarded us,” Mensick said.

The FAA cited Tur for allegedly violating minimum altitude restrictions, creating a hazard to those on the ground and flying in a careless manner. He was sent a letter of “proposed certificate action,” indicating the FAA’s intent to ultimately suspend his pilot’s license for six months.

He can appeal to the National Transportation Safety Board if the FAA decides to ground Tur.

On Monday, Tur denied any wrongdoing, saying he was never less than 1,000 feet above the crash site and that the FAA imposed formal altitude restrictions only after he had departed the area--a contention that the federal agency denies.

“I made a decision out there,” he said. “I could have played it safe and not come back with a story by letting the Air Guard tell me how to cover the story. But I think that a reporter should make that decision. And as long as we fly in a safe and prudent manner and don’t violate regulations, I see no problem.”

Tur’s Hollywood-based news service supports itself in large measure by covering newsworthy events and selling videotape to television stations and networks. He said that his footage of activities at the Martin-Ortiz crash site was purchased by the ABC and CBS networks, a Japanese network and several local stations.