Plane carrying N.Y. Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey Ross skids off runway
     CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. - Feb 18, 1998 5:54 p.m. EST -- A small plane
 carrying New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey Ross went off the runway
 Wednesday before skidding into a grassy field. No injuries were
 reported.
     McCaughey Ross was in the private plane with three other passen-
 gers and the pilot when it lost power and went out of control moments
 after takeoff about 3:15 p.m., Niagara Frontier Transportation
 Authority spokesman Harry Spector said.
     "It was not quite a crash," Spector said. "We're calling it an
 incident."
     The six-seat, twin-engine Beechcraft was attempting to take off
 in the rain for Rochester. McCaughey Ross was in Buffalo after
 releasing a report documenting the state's economic shortcomings.
     McCaughey Ross rented a car for her trip to Rochester.
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
    Study recommends more tests on allowing pilots to pick routes
     WASHINGTON - Feb 18, 1998 3:48 p.m. EST -- Aviation researchers
 are urging the government not to begin a program letting airline
 pilots pick their own routes until safety can be more definitely
 assured.
     Known as "free flight," the system is scheduled for a two-year
 Federal Aviation Administration test in Alaska and Hawaii beginning
 next year.
     Allowing pilots to chart their own routes rather than following
 the current series of designated pathways in the sky could save
 time by allowing them to select more direct trips and avoid storms
 and other delays.
     But a National Research Council study released Wednesday con-
 cluded that control should remain with ground-based air traffic
 controllers until the safety implications of free flight are
 thoroughly understood.
     "Automation and free flight could help the FAA create a more
 reliable and efficient system, increase capacity in the air and
 minimize delays caused by poor weather and inefficient routes,"
 Christopher Wickens, chairman of the Research Council panel that
 prepared the report, said in a statement.
     But Wickens, head of the Aviation Research Laboratory at the
 University of Illinois, said that "before any major changes are
 made to the air traffic control system, it is crucial that we test
 the way pilots and controllers would respond to the new demands
 being placed on them."
     FAA spokesman Les Dorr said the agency could not comment in
 detail because it had just received the 319-page report.
     "We will review it carefully as we continue to develop the
 concept of free flight," Dorr said.
     The research panel studied free flight and several automation
 proposals designed to help controllers in its report.
     The new technology will be especially needed as the skies grow
 more crowded, the report observed. It said the FAA should focus on
 equipment that would help controllers obtain information on air
 traffic and use it to maintain proper spacing between craft.
     The group called for extensive simulation studies of free flight
 to determine what is likely to happen in various situations.
     Giving pilots more freedom may lead controllers to become less
 aware of overall flight activity in their area, the report said. For
 example, a controller who merely witnesses a plane changing altitude
 may be less likely to remember any possible conflicts than a control-
 ler who actively directed the pilot to make a change.
     And while the planes would contain warning devices to prevent
 them from coming too close to another airliner, the report said it
 was unclear how pilots will decide on particular maneuvers to avoid
 conflict.
     Currently, most airliners follow directions from ground-based
 controllers, crossing the country from checkpoint to checkpoint,
 often in zigzag paths that waste time and fuel.
 ===
--- DB 1.39/004487
---------------