The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 137

ORANGE COUNTY Local News Editorial Pages Cos Angeles (Times Thursday, March 12, 1987 CCttPart II Standard Visual Rules in Use Before Fatal Copter Crash A 1 1 fc By JOSH GETLIN, Timet Staff Writer The police helicopter pilots involved in Tuesday's midair collision over Irvine were following "see-and-be-seen" safety guidelines observed by law enforcement agencies throughout Southern California and were not subject to Federal Aviation Administration control, police officials said Wednesday. In the aftermath of the crash, in which two officers and an observer were killed and two officers were injured, police officials said such helicopter crews frequently operate under stressful working conditions and have few guidelines to avoid such disasters. Apart from a policy that the aircraft keep safe distances from each other and communicate their locations over radio channels, the pilots follow a "looking-out-for-the-other-guy" maxim that is largely self-policing, Los Angeles Police Lt. George Tawes said. "There are no hard-and-fast rules up there that I'm aware of," added Newport Beach police spokesman Kent Stoddard.

"Other than providing a courtesy notice so one helicopter knows that another has entered their air space, there are no rules." Unlike fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters are KjSS lf.ll generally free from FAA regulation, according to agency spokeswoman Barbara Abels. They operate under so-called visual flight rules that "are just like driving your car. You're responsible as a pilot for the operation of that vehicle," she said. Tuesday night's collision occurred when a Costa Mesa police helicopter pursuing a car theft suspect radioed over an emergency channel to a A car theft suspect was booked on suspicion of murder in copter crash deaths. Part Page 1.

Newport Beach aircraft that the suspect was about to enter that city, police said. The Costa Mesa crew intended to "hand off' the pursuit to Newport Beach counterparts, who could better identify city streets to patrol cars below, Stoddard explained. Seconds later, the two aircraft collided over an open field near the UC Irvine campus. Two officers and an observer aboard the Costa Mesa aircraft were killed, while the two officers in the Newport Beach helicopter were injured, police said. At the moment of collision, both pilots apparently were flying at an altitude below 1,000 feet and had to keep their eyes on the fleeing suspect, an FAA spokesman said.

That task, plus the need to direct police cars on the ground, typifies the stressful conditions under which the helicopter crews operate, Huntington Beach Lt. Robert Morrison said. "The workload in the cockpits gets very heavy during one of these pursuits," he said. "You're trying to keep your eye on the car. You're watching your instruments to make sure everything is within limits; you're looking around outside, watching for other aircraft, and you're directing other police units coming into the pursuit." Morrison said the situation becomes even more complicated when police helicopters from several jurisdictions get involved in the chase.

At that point, he said, it is crucial that pilots communicate regularly with each over a special radio channel so that all the aircraft converging on a scene can keep a proper distance. "We've had situations where a pursuit starts up in the San Fernando Valley and it goes all the Please see RULES, Page 7 aV Wv DON ELS EN Lot Angeles Times Costa Mesa Police Capt. Robert E. Moody, at press conference, said fatal police helicopter collision may have occurred as both aircraft were performing a maneuver to change altitude. History of Service Copters' Job for Police Gets Support Costa Mesa Officers 'Died Doing What They Most' By BOB SCHWARTZ, Times Staff Writer John William Libolt and James David Ketchum "died doing what they loved to do most," a Costa Mesa police lieutenant who had known both officers since their earliest days on the force said Wednesday.

The two Costa Mesa police helicopter pilots died Tuesday night in Irvine when their aircraft collid- 1 1- IT A 1- ea wun a rvewpon oeacn i 4 a. 1 neiicopier wnue Doin were pursuing a suspected teen-age car thief from Anaheim. Friends and family of the two men described them as hard-working, experienced police officers who were popular among their colleagues and dedicated to their dangerous specialty. "If he had it to do all over again, I know he wouldn't change a thing," Meg Ketchum said of her husband. "He loved flying, he just loved it." Wednesday night, surrounded by friends and relatives in her living room, Meg Ketchum told again and again how she found out about her husband's death by watching the news on television during a break from her job as an AirCal reservations clerk.

"Geez, you picture that the phone's going to ring or someone's going to walk up to your door," she said. "I just couldn't be By JEFFREY A. PERLM AN and BILL BILLITER, Times Staff Writers When 5-year-old Laura Michele Small of El Toro was mauled by a mountain lion in a remote area of Orange County a year ago, it was an Orange County Sheriff's Department helicopter that whisked her to a Mission Viejo hospital, where doctors said the airlift possibly saved her life. The helicopter was one of two purchased in 1985 by Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates, who had waged a two-year campaign to persuade a reluctant Board of Supervisors to spend $1.6 million on the two aircraft and support personnel. Gates dubbed the aircraft "Duke and "Duke II" after the late John Wayne, who lived in Newport Beach.

There also is a grim side as evidenced by the collision of two police helicopters from Costa Mesa and Newport Beach that left three dead and two injured. Yet despite Tuesday night's tragedy the third fatal accident since law enforcement helicopters were introduced in Orange County in 1969 many city and county officials said Wednesday that their advantages greatly outweigh the risks. Safety Cited "Helicopters help keep communities safer because we found out long ago that it is far better to track suspects in high-speed chases from the air rather than on the ground," said Irvine Mayor Larry Agran, over whose city the fatal collision occurred at 10:20 p.m. "One'of the unfortunate factors of this accident is that is just what the helicopters were doing at the time," Agran said of the accident, which claimed the lives of two longtime Costa Mesa Police Department pilots and a civilian observer, and injured two Newport Beach police pilots. Agran added that the Tuesday night accident over Irvine in no Please see HISTORY, Page 4 titn f-l.

i- -i L- --y w-, GAIL FISHER Los Angeles Times Flags fly at half-mast at City Hall. lieve it." Her husband liked to fish, hike and backpack, and the two of them often went on scuba -diving trips together and had plans to go to Hawaii soon, she said. A 15-year-veteran of the Police Department, Ketchum worked as a patrol officer and a detective before becoming a pilot about six years ago, his mother-in-law, Betty Redd, said. Libolt whose nickname was "The Silver Fox" because of his modeling good looks and graying hair, according to Redd was one of the first motor officers to become a Costa Mesa helicopter pilot, said Lt. George Lorton, a 26-year police veteran who fished with Ketchum and played Softball with Libolt.

"The opportunity was there, and they decided that was what they wanted to do in their careers," Lorton said. "I think if you love to fly, like they did, it's considered an outstanding job." Detective Paul Cappuccilli had to choke back tears to talk about his fallen colleagues. "They were just real nice guys, and both of them enjoyed the hell out of flying," he said. "It's real difficult to do work now. There's a real sense of shock and sadness here." Please see OFFICERS, Page 4 KEN HIVELY Los Angeles Times Police examine scorched area at site of fatal helicopter crash, in this view from another copter.

Dornan, Ferguson to Detail Spending in Irvine Election FBI Seeking Link Between Tax Protester, Pipe Bombs By MARIA L. La GANG Times Staff Writer Fertility Method Seems to Pass Vatican Muster By MARCIDA DODSON, Times Staff Writer I Ay I By LANIE JONES, Times Staff Writer Saying that they did not mean to violate state election laws and will make amends, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) promised Wednesday to give a detailed accounting of money they spent on the Irvine City Council race last June. Meanwhile, Irvine City Atty.

Roger Grable said he will ask the state's Fair Political Practices Commission and the Orange County district attorney's office to investigate whether state laws were violated. On Tuesday, Irvine Mayor Larry Agran accused Ferguson and Dornan of violating state statutes by failing to report to the city clerk how much they had spent on campaign mailers in Irvine last year. Please tee IRVINE, Page 16 The FBI is looking into possible links between pipe bombs found near a federal building in Laguna Niguel and the leader of an anti-tax splinter group of the Posse Comita-tus who is charged with making death threats in Nevada, government sources said Wednesday. Although no definite connection has been established, the FBI is investigating whether radical tax protester William P. Gale was involved in any way with the bombs found March 2 near the Chet Holifield Building, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified.

Seven pipe bombs two of them containing live explosive chargeswere discovered that day in a vacant field across from the federal building, which is also called the Ziggurat, Orange County sheriff's spokesmen said at the time. Members of the Orange County Hazardous Devices Squad, who spent more than six hours examining the bombs, determined that only two of them were live. Those bombs were safely destroyed. The other five bombs had been detonated some time before their discovery by firefighters, who were called to the scene because of a small fire in the vacant field, a Fire Department spokesman said. No one was injured in the incident, and no group has stepped forward to claim responsibility for the bombs.

The sources said investigators have little to go on. FBI officials in Las Vegas confirmed, however, that their office is involved In the investigation of the Laguna Niguel incident. Gale and six associates were arrested last October on charges that they made death threats against Internal Revenue Service Agents in Nevada. The charges stemmed from a Please see FBI, Page 9 While test-tube fertilization and other forms of artificial reproduction were condemned by the Vatican this week, a fertility technique pioneered by an Orange County physician apparently has the Pope's approval. Dr.

Ricardo H. Asch, director of the UCI-AMI Center for Reproductive Health in Garden Grove, developed the GIFT technique by which the woman's eggs and man's sperm are injected into the Fallopian tubes, where conception and fertilization naturally occurs. The Vatican document issued Monday outlaws artificial insemination, embryo and sperm banks, surrogate parenthood and the technology that produces "test-tube babies." It condemns fertilization that occurs outside the body such as In vitro, or test tube, fertilization-or outside a marriage, such as surrogate mother hood or artificial insemination using sperm of a man who is not the husband. The document itself did not list specific techniques acceptable to the Vatican. However, when pressed, Father Bartholomew Kiely, who teaches moral theology at Gregorian University, told United Press International that the GIFT technique, developed in 1984, was permissible.

GIFT is an acronym for Gamete Intra-Fallopian Transfer. Kiely said it was acceptable because the technical means of fertilization is not a substitute for the conjugal act. Asch said Wednesday that couples who wish to respect the Catholic Church's doctrine are allowed to collect sperm for the GIFT procedure during intercourse. The husband wears a perforated condom-like device that retains seminal fluid for use in the GIFT Please see FERTILITY, Page 9 Los Angeles Times Dr. Ricardo Asch The origin of life in the technique always takes place inside the human.