sj
Staff member
Northwest Arkansas
http://www.telegram.com/article/20090331/FRONTPAGENEWS/903310270
WORCESTER — The National Transportation Safety Board has upheld the two-month suspension of a local lawyer’s pilot’s license imposed after he flew a Piper Cub too near the surface of Wachusett Reservoir and the Cosgrove Intake Building.
NTSB documents identify the pilot as Roy A. Bourgeois and state the incident took place about 5:30 p.m. Aug. 2, 2007. Mr. Bourgeois is a Worcester lawyer.
Two men fishing from shore told administrative law Judge William E. Fowler Jr. at a two-day hearing in August and September 2008 that the single-engine aircraft was about 30 feet above the water and 50 feet from the shoreline when it flew by them.
Two Department of Conservation and Recreation watershed rangers testified that the Piper Cub was close enough to the Cosgrove Intake Building, where they were standing, that they were able to describe the two men in the airplane.
The Cosgrove Intake building is where drinking water from Wachusett Reservoir flows east to metropolitan Boston.
Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Richard K. Sullivan Jr. said today that the agency was eager to get the word out that pilots are not to fly within 500 feet of a person or structure. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice that aircraft were not to come within 500 feet of a public water supply.
“In terms of public health and public safety, we take this very seriously. Two fishermen and two of our DCR watershed rangers acted quickly and reported this incident, and this should serve as notice to any pilot who might be thinking of doing the same thing,” Mr. Sullivan said.
The commissioner credited heightened public awareness after 9-11 with fewer instances of low flyovers at Quabbin and Wachusett.
Mr. Bourgeois told Judge Fowler he had a passenger on board the Piper Cub, Robert Hansman, who was photographing wildlife.
The pilot told the judge that he had several years’ experience with soaring and gliding clubs and that he had flown over the reservoir “hundreds if not thousands of times,” and no one had complained before.
Mr. Bourgeois maintained that at no time was his flight “careless, reckless or dangerous.”
The FAA had recommended a 90-day license suspension, but because Mr. Bourgeois had no prior violations penalty was reduced to 60 days.
Mr. Bourgeois appealed the decision of the administrative law judge to the NTSB, which denied the appeal, based on what it called compelling and persuasive evidence from witnesses.
The 60-day suspension took effect Feb. 16.
WORCESTER — The National Transportation Safety Board has upheld the two-month suspension of a local lawyer’s pilot’s license imposed after he flew a Piper Cub too near the surface of Wachusett Reservoir and the Cosgrove Intake Building.
NTSB documents identify the pilot as Roy A. Bourgeois and state the incident took place about 5:30 p.m. Aug. 2, 2007. Mr. Bourgeois is a Worcester lawyer.
Two men fishing from shore told administrative law Judge William E. Fowler Jr. at a two-day hearing in August and September 2008 that the single-engine aircraft was about 30 feet above the water and 50 feet from the shoreline when it flew by them.
Two Department of Conservation and Recreation watershed rangers testified that the Piper Cub was close enough to the Cosgrove Intake Building, where they were standing, that they were able to describe the two men in the airplane.
The Cosgrove Intake building is where drinking water from Wachusett Reservoir flows east to metropolitan Boston.
Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Richard K. Sullivan Jr. said today that the agency was eager to get the word out that pilots are not to fly within 500 feet of a person or structure. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice that aircraft were not to come within 500 feet of a public water supply.
“In terms of public health and public safety, we take this very seriously. Two fishermen and two of our DCR watershed rangers acted quickly and reported this incident, and this should serve as notice to any pilot who might be thinking of doing the same thing,” Mr. Sullivan said.
The commissioner credited heightened public awareness after 9-11 with fewer instances of low flyovers at Quabbin and Wachusett.
Mr. Bourgeois told Judge Fowler he had a passenger on board the Piper Cub, Robert Hansman, who was photographing wildlife.
The pilot told the judge that he had several years’ experience with soaring and gliding clubs and that he had flown over the reservoir “hundreds if not thousands of times,” and no one had complained before.
Mr. Bourgeois maintained that at no time was his flight “careless, reckless or dangerous.”
The FAA had recommended a 90-day license suspension, but because Mr. Bourgeois had no prior violations penalty was reduced to 60 days.
Mr. Bourgeois appealed the decision of the administrative law judge to the NTSB, which denied the appeal, based on what it called compelling and persuasive evidence from witnesses.
The 60-day suspension took effect Feb. 16.
