PIRU : Film’s Phony Plane Crash Takes Doing

Nose-down in a rushing river, the plane hangs precariously from the steel girders of an old bridge.

Will the crew survive?

Will the passengers escape before the plane explodes?

Will moviegoers stop to wonder how the makers of “Hero,” starring Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis and Andy Garcia, managed to hang a 727 from a bridge?

As unlikely as a commercial airline wreck in Piru Creek may seem, “Hero” crews on location in Piru are finding out that it’s even tougher to put a plane there on purpose.

It takes four months of negotiations, a windless day in Mohave to transport pieces of plane to Ventura County and an assortment of cranes, lifts and bulldozers.

Crew members said Tuesday that it would help if they could shut off the warm breeze blowing down from Piru Canyon as they struggled to balance the plane’s tail section atop the old Center Street bridge.

That’s after running the gauntlet of half a dozen federal, state and Ventura County agencies.

“If I wanted to build a shopping mall in a riverbed, I’d know what permit to get,” joked location manager Amy Ness of the stack of paperwork that she collected while paving the way for the Columbia Pictures production.

To control the flow of water during filming, the creek bed has been graded, which required a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Grading destroyed plants and wildlife habitat, so the state Department of Fish and Game must oversee post-production restoration of the creek, which will be monitored for five years.

Since the script calls for a river in full spate, filming will coincide with United Water Conservation District’s releases of water from Lake Piru in late November and early December. The Piru Neighborhood Council was consulted about seven all-nighters with bright lights, helicopters, “fire effects” and water towers to simulate stormy weather.

And it was only courtesy to notify the Federal Aviation Administration before reports pour in of a downed plane in Piru.

Is this any way to run a plane crash? Director Stephen Frears (“The Grifters” and “Dangerous Liaisons”) thinks it is, despite the fact that the movie takes place in Chicago.

Most of the movie centers on the interaction among “the conniving crook who stumbles on the crash, a desperate character who steals the limelight, and a reporter who gets a bigger story than was bargained for,” said production publicist Saul Kahan.

As if hanging the plane off the bridge isn’t enough work, there’s traffic on California 126 to consider. The road will be closed for a period on Dec. 12 or 13 when the plane meets its fiery end.