Ill-Fated Plane’s Pilot Was Cited Previously for FAA Infractions

Records show that the pilot of a small plane that plunged into Lake Tahoe was twice cited for flying violations by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Eric Svelmoe, 33, of San Diego, was taking his family on an aerial sightseeing tour Monday around the south shore of the lake when the rented Piper Aero experienced unknown difficulties and lost power, officials said.

Svelmoe, his wife, Carolyn, and their three daughters, ages 7, 5 and 3, escaped serious injury when the single-engine plane plunged into Lake Tahoe about 150 yards from shore and sank in 20 feet of water, the El Dorado County sheriff’s office said.

FAA officials recovered the plane Tuesday and were continuing an investigation.

The FAA suspended Svelmoe’s pilot’s license for 180 days beginning Aug. 29, 1984, for violations he committed during a March 1984 flight from Mexico just across the border from Brown Field in San Diego.

In that incident, Svelmoe was cited for flying at night without position lights, failing to file a flight plan and not carrying certificates of registration or airworthiness on the plane he was flying.

In 1985, the FAA suspended his license for 60 days for towing an anti-homosexual banner over a Gay Pride Day parade in Balboa Park while several dozen members of a church picketed along the parade route.

Svelmoe, who wasn’t certified to fly an aircraft towing a banner, spent more than an hour circling above the June, 1985 parade in a small plane that trailed a banner that spelled out “repent” and a derogatory term for homosexuals.

Svelmoe, an aircraft mechanic, also was among seven abortion foes sentenced to federal prison terms in connection with the July 27, 1987 attempted bombing of a San Diego abortion clinic.

The gunpowder-loaded pipe bomb was attached to a 2-gallon container of gasoline, but the device was defective and failed to explode.

Svelmoe, who admittedly planted the bomb, was sentenced to six months in prison after becoming a prosecution witness.