An ANN Special Report: Since When Is The FAA Using the Media to Do Its Dirtywork?

(Part Four of A Four Part Special Report)

• Read Part One

• Read Part Two

• Read Part Three

Another "Bad Fed"?

We heard from a number of people, including serious players in the airshow business, about several altercations with Lehman in which they plainly questioned his motives, veracity, and professional detachment. The situation was serious enough to cause ICAS President, John Cudahy, to contact the FAA's Airshow Coordinator, Sue Gardner, to seek an investigation. More pointedly; one of the demo jumpers for the 2001 EAA Fly-In at Arlington ran afoul of Lehman and found him to be "not even familiar with the provisions of the waiver" that the FAA issued for the airshow portion of the Fly-In. Noting that Lehman was "constantly causing problems for many of the performers and officials," of the Fly-In, demo jumper Alan Silver, an internationally recognized parachuting authority, skydiver, rigger and rigger examiner (who even consults for the FAA and NTSB), was accused of a violation by Lehman for a jump he performed (without compensation) on Saturday, July 14th, 2001.

According to FAA documents pertaining to the alleged violation, Lehman accused Silver (right) of conducting an airshow demonstration jump that did not comply with the waiver issued for the show. Lehman reportedly did this based on his personal observations of Silver's jump. He stated that Silver "did not comply with all the requirements contained in the Certificate of Authorization in that you exited the aircraft over a congested area and landed within the spectators in an area that was not large enough."

Silver disagreed. Strongly.

The problem with Lehman's charges is that they were, apparently, untrue. A veritable "Who's Who" of airshow personalities in the great Northwest came forward and countered Lehman's assertions with their own expert (often written) observations.

The Fly-In's AirBoss, Steve Soper, took "great exception" to Lehman's charges in a letter to the FAA, calling Lehman's estimation of Silver's exit position "an opinion based on a guess."

Soper alleged Lehman could not have even seen Silver's landing because "he did not have a clear view of the landing area." Soper noted that there were "several twin-engine aircraft parked between our position (Soper was with Lehman during the jump) and the landing area, including a DC-3." Soper also mentions that Lehman had inspected the landing area previously and "he had no trouble with it." Soper added that he found it "disturbing that an FAA Inspector can just decide in his head that there was a violation in such an arbitrary manner, write a letter to stick in someone's file with no discussion with the person involved or anything or anyone to substantiate his claim."

Soper's observations were corroborated by Blue Sky Parabatics' Lynn and Deb Kleen, Airshow Announcer Gene Soper, and others... including ANN's Jim Campbell, an experienced skydiver and former jumpmaster and instructor, who did see the jump and can corroborate the fact that Silver was operating safely and legally.

ANN: Nobody Wins

There's more to this story... the conflict between Kapowsin and a few of the airport's home owners is an amazing tale and we look forward to telling it to you once we've heard both sides equally and thoroughly.

However; no matter who's at fault, media reports like that broadcast by KIRO, and actions like those of the FAA, are woeful examples of unfairness wrapped around several errors in fact, false allegations and improper assumptions that do no one any good... especially Kapowsin and the rest of the aviation community.

The FAA has NO right to pre-judge an incomplete investigation and then impart that biased information, inequitably, to those that can (obviously) do the most damage. We're particularly concerned by the compelling and numerous (documented) charges of bias on the part of the Seattle FSDO against skydiving interests... Indeed, in yet another case, a Kapowsin DZ pilot made a complaint to the Seattle FSDO about an operator that he asserted blocked a runway he was approaching... and thereafter found himself violated (in part, for flying too low while executing the obligatory go-around) for the same incident! Pilots at Kapowsin have told ANN that they simply can't trust the FAA to deal with them equitably, and feel helpless to deal with situations in which the FAA might otherwise be helpful in improving the safety of all those involved. The cause of aviation safety is not being promoted via the aforementioned actions.

Further; as regards KIRO's story... every member of the media has a responsibility to research every story carefully, or to at least consult with those with enough expertise to offer a proper rendering of the facts. This was not a hard story to research and data on the accidents is plentiful... and public. We think KIRO missed the mark here... by quite a bit, and it appears that has already harmed Kapowsin a great deal, and is destined to continue doing so, so long as this story stands as it is.

There's more to all this, folks... and as we research a few more details, we'll present other stories to you...

But in the meantime, ANN is formally requesting a DOT-IG investigation of the actions of the Seattle FSDO, Inspector Lehman, their ability to work with sport parachuting interests, and the way that both disclosed their actions and observations to a local TV station in a manner that not only was outside proper procedure (and potentially, the law) but may have done critical damage to a Seattle area aviation business. We'll keep you apprised.

FMI: http://www.skydivenet.com/kapowsin/dropzone.htm, http://www.kirotv.com, http://www.kirotv.com/video/1990838/detail.html