AWOL GI Was Pilot in Reagan’s Near-Miss : FAA Abruptly Lifts His License; Secret Service Questioners Decide He Had No Criminal Intent

The flier whose rented light plane strayed into prohibited airspace and perilously close to President Reagan’s helicopter near Santa Barbara was identified Friday as an Army private who has been AWOL for nearly two weeks from Ft. Lewis, Wash.

The pilot’s license of Ralph William Myers, 32, was abruptly revoked by the Federal Aviation Administration “for careless and reckless operation of an aircraft” and for violating the prohibited airspace over Reagan’s ranch Thursday afternoon.

Myers was turned over to an Army military police sergeant who presented himself Monday night at the Orange City Jail, where the errant flier had been held since early afternoon.

Secret Service agents said they had questioned Myers until about 1 a.m. Friday, after he landed at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, and concluded that he did not stray into the Rancho del Cielo airspace deliberately. But they did not realize then that he was an AWOL serviceman and they allowed him to go to his Orange County hotel room upon his promise to return Friday for more questions.

He did so, they said. By then, they knew that he had been absent without leave from Ft. Lewis since Aug. 3. Al Joaquin, assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service in Los Angeles, said the agents asked him more questions, but were “still operating under the assumption that no criminal intent was involved” in the airspace intrusion.

Reports of servicemen absent without leave do not go into a computer system for 30 days, Joaquin pointed out.

For a time Friday, it appeared that the Secret Service had allowed Myers to drop from sight. FAA spokeswoman Ellie Brekke said the agency did not know his whereabouts and had airmailed the notice of his pilot’s license revocation to his listed address in Lake Oswego, Ore.

The Piper Archer airplane that Myers had rented from Vancouver Aviation in Vancouver, Wash., for a pleasure trip to the Los Angeles area remained parked Friday afternoon at John Wayne Airport. Vancouver Aviation’s chief pilot, Marianne Fullman, said the firm was taking steps to retrieve it.

It was at the Orange County airport that Myers and his passenger--identified by the U.S. attorney’s office as Harlan Lee Jones, 52, also of Lake Oswego--were detained shortly after the encounter over the Santa Ynez Mountains late Thursday afternoon.

Jones was presumed to be the owner of Harlan Jones Contractors in White Salmon, Wash., for whom, Army records indicated, Myers worked as a pilot from 1983 to last year.

‘Not a Good Day’

Martin Aviation ramp hostess Barbara Geving, who drove Myers and Jones to the John Wayne terminal from their plane after they landed Thursday afternoon, said Myers told her, “We’re not having a good day. . . . We must have gotten into some wrong airspace.”

Myers drifted into the prohibited airspace over Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo about 3:35 p.m., flying only 200 to 300 feet in front of and about 150 feet below the Marine One helicopter carrying the President and his party.

The pilot of Marine One made a “gentle climb and right-hand turn” to avoid the small plane and landed safely at the ranch, a White House spokesman said. Another White House helicopter tracked the Piper to Orange County, where Myers and Jones were taken into custody about 6 p.m. and questioned.

The FAA late Friday played for reporters the tape of Santa Barbara Airport control tower radio messages that indicated that the Piper was detected on radar and that a controller warned not only Reagan’s helicopter, but the accompanying Marine helicopter and a nearby United Air Lines passenger jet of its presence.

The pilot of Marine One could be heard saying, “We got this guy right underneath us. He just flew over the ranch at 100 feet. I want to know who that guy is.”

CBS-TV reported that Myers told investigators that he was tired as he flew across Santa Barbara County, took out his contact lenses and handed them to his passenger--who dropped them. Myers purportedly said the two of them were searching for the lenses when the plane strayed into the prohibited airspace.

Reagan Not in Danger

Rich Adams, a Secret Service spokesman in Washington, said he knew only that “the pilot claimed to have been disoriented when he entered restricted airspace.”

“I can’t confirm anything further,” he said.

At Santa Barbara on Friday morning, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater stressed that “at no time was he (the President) in any danger.”

White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr., who was aboard the helicopter, along with the President and National Security Adviser Frank C. Carlucci, said, “. . . the President was not aware of the incident. He did not seem particularly upset when he found out about it.”

Baker observed, however, “I suppose there’s a fair amount of danger when a plane comes that close to a helicopter.”

Fitzwater emphatically rejected suggestions that the incident presented any serious threat to Reagan’s security.

“The system worked entirely properly,” he said. “The Marine pilots performed with distinction in the most effective way imaginable.”

Sarcastic Response

Asked whether there should be greater precautions to prevent such occurrences in the future, Fitzwater responded sarcastically: “You mean like a 6,000-foot steel wire fence? Or what do you have in mind? . . . Do you want to close down aviation in America? You want to interview every pilot before he gets into his plane?

“What do you want to do? Want to put Stingers (air-to-air missiles) in the tail of Air Force One?”

He declined to speculate as to whether the Secret Service adequately checked the pilot’s background before releasing him.

Fitzwater said U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner in Los Angeles will “continue to review this case and will be making judgments in the future if there is any indication that charges should be filed.”

Mary McMenimen, spokeswoman for Bonner’s office, said, “We are working with the Secret Service and the FAA to determine if any action is warranted.” She said the office was looking at potential civil and criminal violations involving the violation of prohibited airspace over Rancho del Cielo and restricted airspace over Point Mugu, as well as the air traffic area surrounding Santa Barbara Airport.

Possible Charges

Other charges could include flying too close to another aircraft, careless and reckless operation of an aircraft, as well as endangering life and property.

Marine Col. Michael Glenn, pilot of the presidential helicopter, said he did not believe that it and the Piper were actually on a collision course.

The FAA said pilots are prohibited from flying below 4,000 feet within 10 miles of the Reagan ranch at any time and are banned from flying below 5,000 feet when the President is there.

At John Wayne Airport, Geving described Myers as wearing a leather jacket and Levis. She said his passenger had on a leather jacket and a cowboy hat.

Martin Aviation service manager Jack Cummins said a man in a yellow suit met the pair at the airport, then drove away with the passenger in a maroon Mercedes-Benz shortly before 6 p.m. Cummins said Myers “seemed to be pretty nonchalant and surprised that anything was going on.”

Skip Payment for Gas

Cummins said the men told him that they were planning to stay in the area for a couple of days. They filled the plane with gasoline--but never paid the $58.59 bill, because Secret Service agents whisked them away.

Under the license revocation ordered Friday by FAA Administrator Allan McArtor, Myers may not fly, effective immediately. The usual revocation period is one year. He may appeal.

Army records indicated that Myers was a member of the Nevada Air National Guard from 1980 to 1983, serving as an aircraft maintenance mechanic. During the same period, he was employed by the Reno Flying Service, a private aviation firm.

From 1983 to 1986, while working for Harlan Jones Contractors, he apparently lived in the nearby town of Bingen, where his parents live.

Medical Specialist

He went on active duty at Ft. Lewis on June 16 of last year and was assigned as a medical specialist in headquarters company of the 3rd Battalion, 47th Infantry, 9th Motorized Infantry Division.

At that time, he reportedly rented an apartment in Vancouver, Wash., about 50 miles south of Ft. Lewis, apparently for weekend use. Vancouver Aviation officials said he began renting planes there about a month later.

Last April, he moved to Lake Oswego, a suburb of Portland, Ore. Army spokesman George Polich said, however, that Myers was living on the base on Aug. 3 when he “simply failed to show up for work. . . . “

Staff writers John M. Broder in Washington, Lonn Johnston and Mark Landsbaum in Orange County, Frederick M. Muir and Kim Murphy in Los Angeles and Michael Wines in Santa Barbara contributed to this article.