FAA Asked to Curb Flights After King Verdicts

Three major police agencies and the city Fire Department have asked that aircraft be banned from flying under 2,000 feet over all of Los Angeles County without prior approval when the verdicts in the Rodney G. King case are made public, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.

FAA spokesman Fred O’Donnell said the agency is considering the request and that a decision on temporary flight restrictions on helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft over the county, or a smaller area, could be implemented on as little as an hour’s notice.

Under the restrictions, television news helicopters could apply for permission to cover a particular event, such as a demonstration or a violent incident, but it would probably take about an hour for the FAA to decide whether to allow it, O’Donnell said.

He said the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Fire Department and California Highway Patrol have joined in asking the FAA to act under Federal Aviation Regulation 91.137.

“Our people are looking at it,” O’Donnell said. “No local government agencies can close airspace. Under federal regulations, this is up to us.”

One law enforcement official, speaking on the condition that he not be identified, said Friday that the police agencies want to open up airspace for their flights and that they want to avoid direct coverage by news channels that might encourage the spread of riotous conduct if there is a repeat of the trouble that erupted last year after the verdicts in the King beating case.

Initial responses from Los Angeles television stations was, for the most part, restrained.

Terry Crofoot, president and general manager at KABC-TV Channel 7, said that until a decision is made by the FAA, “we wouldn’t have any public reaction. Right now, they say they are considering it. If and when they make a decision, then we’ll react.”

At KNBC Channel 4, officials declined to comment.

But at KNXT Channel 2, Bob Tur, a reporter and pilot for the station, said the requested flight restrictions would result in censorship of news coverage of important events.

“It would be clearly designed to control the news media,” he said, accusing police officials of “wanting to control the spin on the news and what people see.”

“It scares me,” Tur said. “You cannot have prior censorship in this country. This is prior censorship. The federal government and local government do not want people to see the truth.”

FAA spokesman O’Donnell said the agency has made no decisions, and he indicated that a careful study is being made of the implications of the request.

O’Donnell said that some news stations have asked the FAA to notify it of any decision it plans to take, and to consider, if flight restrictions are implemented, giving news helicopters advance clearance to cover events in the restricted zones.

“But we’re not going to do that,” the spokesman said. “If we do order restrictions, bona fide news media will have to contact the controlling agency (the FAA) for permission to fly in specific instances. We would anticipate it would take at least an hour to get clearance.”

This means that news helicopters could not immediately provide live coverage of such events as the April 29 attacks at Florence and Normandy avenues at the onset of the riots.

Actually, as O’Donnell noted Friday, the Florence and Normandy intersection lies within a permanent terminal control area on the approach path to Los Angeles International Airport. Planes wishing to enter this area at any time must get prior approval from air traffic controllers. Aircraft providing news coverage at the intersection last year had to get permission to fly over the area.

But under the new restrictions being requested by law enforcement, the restricted area would be much wider and the procedures for getting permission to fly might be considerably more onerous.

Permission to enter the terminal control area is usually granted immediately upon request. But temporary flight restrictions, such as those requested by the police and fire agencies, require approval well in advance.

O’Donnell did not say what clearance policies the FAA would follow if it approved the requested restrictions. But law enforcement officials have been pressing a broad ban on almost all flights but its own.

There were widespread suggestions by law enforcement officials last year that the coverage during the riot was inflammatory, inciting a spread of the violence. Most station officials denied this at the time, although live coverage was noticeably more restrained during a brief flare-up of trouble several months ago that was quickly squelched by police.

During last year’s riots, the FAA banned commercial airline approaches to Los Angeles International Airport from the east. That meant the flights could not fly over riot-torn South-Central Los Angeles and had to approach the airport from the west, over the Pacific Ocean.

O’Donnell said this procedure restricted the number of hourly arrivals for a four-day period, leading to long delays.

Meanwhile, as the King verdicts approach, Councilman Joel Wachs withdrew from his controversial stand for a council motion to place the National Guard in the streets several days before the verdicts are announced.

Wachs denied that he was backing down, saying that he had received new information that his proposal was already under consideration, making City Council action unnecessary.

He declined to say what the information was, saying it is part of the city’s confidential emergency preparedness plan.

However, other council members and Wachs’ rivals in the mayoral race said he was bailing out of an embarrassing political situation. They said Wachs’ proposal was nothing but political grandstanding because a detailed plan for early deployment of the Guard had been laid out last week during a closed-door session with Police Chief Willie L. Williams.

Times staff writer James Rainey contributed to this story.