Grounding of Most Small Planes Takes Big Toll on Business

Gone are the live television tracking of endless police chases, the traffic updates delivered from overhead, the footage of flames scorching hillsides.

At small airports around the nation, planes have been stilled by a federal ban on flying by general aviation pilots who operate under visual flight rules rather than with instruments.

Though attention has focused on airlines’ problems since last week’s terrorist attacks, most helicopters and small planes remain grounded for security reasons.

The restrictions affect movie makers, flight schools and other industries. Television stations, deprived of their helicopters, have lost a staple.

“It has been weird having no police chases,” said Jeff Wald, news director at KTLA-TV Channel 5.

At radio station KFWB-AM (980), “We’re still able to report” on traffic, News Director Crys Quimby said, but offering alternative routes is tough. “We just lose the bird’s-eye view.”

Runways are quiet and hangars crowded at Van Nuys, the country’s busiest general aviation airport, where the daily number of takeoffs and landings has declined from more than 1,200 to about 300.

At Fullerton Airport, the count dropped from 300 to 100, and officials at John Wayne Airport said they have noticed a similar decrease.

Aviators at Camarillo Airport, a popular hub for recreational and instructional flights, watched the planeless sky in disappointment. “It feels like an airport in some isolated area in the U.S.,” said Scott Smith, director of airports for Ventura County. “Someone takes off and you go over to the window and go, ‘Oh.’ ”

Most corporate jets and larger planes remain in operation, said Jerry Snyder, a regional spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration. The ban also does not apply to smaller planes used for medical emergencies, law enforcement and agricultural purposes, or in Alaska’s remote areas. Late Wednesday, the flight restrictions were eased for other rural areas.

Federal officials have not disclosed any specific security concerns about general aviation aircraft, Snyder said.

Unlike commercial planes, “We’re talking about aircraft the size of an SUV,” said Keith Mordoff, a vice president of the 375,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. in Frederick, Md. “We also tend to know who we’re flying with.”

Nationwide, flight schools and other affected businesses have begun to compile surveys on revenue losses. Mordoff estimated the total could be high as $10 million a day. He warned that the $20-billion-a-year general aviation industry may need a federal bailout. Thousands of layoffs in the industry could result otherwise, aviation officials say.

“Companies are being crippled,” Mordoff said. “People can’t do anything.”

The order also is hurting tourism, movie productions and other businesses and could cost the local and national economies millions.

At Van Nuys Flight Center on Wednesday, pilot Rick Voorhis looked with longing at all the planes and helicopters confined to the tarmac. Every half hour or so, he clicked on aviation Web sites hoping for a go-ahead to fly.

“We can’t do anything but sit and watch out the window,” said Voorhis, president of the company, an aviation school and aircraft sales and service center. He estimated the business is losing $30,000 a day.

“We’re in a holding pattern,” he said. “We can’t keep paying people to do nothing if this keeps up.”

The center’s receptionist, Linda Jorda, spent her day wandering the building and trying to avoid looking at the FBI wanted poster of Osama bin Laden facing her desk.

In Hollywood, aerial filming is also on hold. Pilot Kevin LaRosa had planned to work Wednesday on a movie shoot of people on a downtown rooftop.

“That would raise eyebrows right now,” said LaRosa, whose credits include “Pearl Harbor” and “Independence Day.” He also is president of Jetcopters Inc., a Van Nuys-based company that leases helicopters and planes to news media and other businesses nationwide. The flight restrictions, he estimates, have cost him at least $60,000.

Last week, he was scheduled to fly to New York City for five days of commercial filming of high-rises just north of the World Trade Center. “Obviously that didn’t happen,” LaRosa said.

Instead of working, LaRosa spends his days writing letters to federal officials urging them to lift the ban.

“President Bush has requested that all American citizens go back to work to resume normal operations as soon as possible,” he wrote in one. “This request has been impossible for us.”

Aviation schools also are in a pinch.

“It’s affected us tremendously,” said a dispatcher at the Orange County Flight Center near John Wayne Airport. “We have 14 instructors, and they’re all going hungry.”

Each grounded day means a loss of about $7,000 at Sun Air Aviation at Camarillo Airport, said Curtis Warn, director of the flight academy. The instructors, most of whom work on an hourly basis, have lost their incomes.

The ban puts students in a tough situation. Quinn Conroy, 20, of Westlake Village wants to become a professional pilot but needs training in instrument flying. Five of his sessions were canceled last week and he could not take a certification test.

“It’s scary, investing all this time and money in something you want to do,” he said. “And then something happens and it all changes.”

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Times staff writers Matt Surman, David Haldane and Dan Weikel contributed to this story.