Air Force Suspends Flights After 2nd Military Jet Scare

The Air Force suspended all of its flights in restricted training areas along the East Coast after four National Guard fighter jets screamed past a civilian airliner Friday off the Maryland shore.

It was the second harrowing incident involving National Guard F-16s and airliners in the area in three days.

The Federal Aviation Administration told controllers at its centers in Florida, Washington and New York and military controllers in Virginia to review procedures for operations in and around East Coast military areas.

The American Eagle turboprop took no special action in Friday’s incident, and no one was hurt. The pilot of a Nations Air Boeing 727 two days earlier dived into evasive maneuvers, and two flight attendants and a passenger were thrown to the cabin floor.

In Wednesday’s incident, off New Jersey, a civilian controller following the planes had repeatedly expressed his concern and asked military controllers to get the National Guard plane that was closest to the 727 to move away.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigation teams for both incidents.

Maj. Gen. Donald W. Shepperd, director of the Air National Guard, said at a Pentagon briefing that he considers military aviation safe, noting that thousands of flights occur each day over the East Coast.

In the order suspending flights, Air Force Chief of Staff Ronald R. Fogleman said he was acting “as a precaution to ensure all procedures are sound and present no compromise to safety.”

There was no indication how long the suspension will last.

Maj. Mike Milord, a spokesman for the District of Columbia Air National Guard, said that in Friday’s incident the planes were returning from air combat training when they passed the airliner.

An FAA official said the pilot of the American Eagle airliner, a Saab 330 turboprop, reported that two jet fighters flew above his plane and two below.

Shepperd said three fighters passed at least 1,000 feet above the civilian plane and the fourth, returning because of low fuel, was 1,500 feet below it.

“There was no imminent collision; all had the airliner in sight,” the general said.

The incident was reported by the American Eagle pilot, who was en route from Raleigh-Durham, N.C., to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

In the Wednesday incident, a government official said Friday that military and civilian controllers hundreds of miles apart were coordinating the flights of two F-16s and the Nations Air jetliner.

The jet fighters and the airliner carrying 84 passengers all had clearance to fly through restricted airspace off New Jersey, the official said. Details were still in dispute.

An official of the airline charged that the fighter pilots “screwed up” or “were playing games.” But New Jersey National Guard Col. Thomas E. Griffin said the airliner was never in danger and the F-16 pilots were trying to identify a plane that shouldn’t have been there.

A Navy spokesman, Capt. Mike John, said Friday that Navy air traffic controllers warned the fighter pilots that a civilian plane was in the area. John said the pilots acknowledged the warning.

A government official familiar with the case said civilian air traffic controllers in New York cleared the airliner to fly through the area and were coordinating the movement with military air traffic controllers in Virginia Beach, Va. The two National Guard planes were supposed to be practicing interception maneuvers against each other, the official said.