Allies Suspend Low-Level Flights

WASHINGTON — The United States, Britain and Canada agreed Monday to suspend all low-level military jet training over West Germany for the next three weeks “out of respect for the victims” of a fiery crash last week.

The suspension, requested by the West German government after the Dec. 8 accident at Remscheid, will block military flight training below altitudes of about 10,700 feet.

“The suspension will remain in effect until Jan. 2, 1989, at which point fighter training will resume,” the Pentagon added in releasing a joint communique from the four North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies.

The Remscheid accident involved an Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt jet fighter that slammed into a residential neighborhood, killing the pilot and five people on the ground and igniting a blaze that destroyed 24 homes.

The suspension of low-level training “through the holiday season (was agreed to) out of respect for the victims and the families of the victims of the Remscheid accident, and for Capt. Michael Foster and his family,” the communique said.

Foster, 34, of Seal Beach, Calif., was the pilot of the Thunderbolt. The accident immediately generated fresh demands in West Germany for curbs on training flights by NATO air forces.