Local News in Brief : Pilots Drop FAA Lawsuit

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn., which sued the Federal Aviation Administration last summer when the agency announced that it was reconfiguring airspace restrictions over Los Angeles International Airport, says it is dropping the suit because it thinks the FAA’s newly released plan is satisfactory.

The pilots’ organization complained vehemently last August when FAA chief T. Allan McArtor closed a “visual flight corridor” that allowed pilots to cross LAX without permission from air traffic controllers.

However, when the FAA on Monday unveiled three new routes that pilots can use beginning March 10 to cross over commercial airliners near LAX, one of the routes was in much the same location as the old corridor, along the coast.

The primary change is that pilots will now have to use planes equipped with so-called Mode C transponders, instruments that broadcast their location and altitude to controllers monitoring restricted airspace surrounding the airport.

Scott Raphael, an attorney representing AOPA, said the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn., another party to the suit, will join in dropping it.