Ranchers, Others Sue To Stop
Air Force Low-Level Flights

LAS CRUCES, N.M. —(AP)— The same day an F-16C went down over eastern New Mexico ranching country, ranchers sued the Air Force to halt plans to expand low-level training flights over southern New Mexico and West Texas.

Ranchers, environmentalists and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had objected to the U.S. Air Combat Command's decision in June to go ahead with a bombing range on Otero Mesa southeast of Alamogordo, opening flight paths over desert and forest lands.

"It will be economically disastrous," said Santa Fe attorney Frank Bond, who represents ranchers who sued last Tuesday in federal court here.

"You might just see a bunch of cowboys in front of you, but this is the heritage of New Mexico, people borne of the land," Bond said. "Ostensibly, this expansion is about training, but these will be low-level, subsonic flights at great speeds, and the adverse impacts will be great."

Air Force officials say additional flights associated with expanded training routes and the proposed new bombing range are vital to maintaining U.S. military readiness and accommodating an increase in German air force personnel at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo.

U.S. Air Force spokesman Gerta Parr said military officials would not comment on the lawsuit until they have reviewed it.

The bombing range and new flight paths would be used by the U.S. Air Force and German Luftwaffe. The Germans have trained pilots in 12 Tornado fighter jet aircraft in a top flight school at Holloman since September 1995.

The Luftwaffe plans to bring 30 more Tornadoes and about 640 support personnel and their families to Holloman next year. Alamogordo welcomes that as a potential economic boom.

That view is not shared by ranchers.

In the lawsuit, 20 individuals, the Otero County Cattleman's Association and the Lincoln Permittees' Association said planned training flights as low as 100 feet above desert flatlands threaten their livelihoods, property values and way of life.

"We're all very strong supporters of the military and always have been. But in this case, we feel the Air Force has not listened to our recommendations," rancher Charlie Lee, 70, said Tuesday. "These low-level flights are going to cause a lot of damage."

Wolfgang Moser, a spokesman for the German consul general in Houston, said the bombing range also would be used by American pilots. And he said U.S. military bases in Germany are "immensely larger than this little one in Holloman."

The lawsuit names as defendants the U.S. Air Force, its acting secretary, the Department of Defense, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and the Luftwaffe.

The lawsuit alleges the Air Force failed to do an adequate environmental impact study on the training route expansion as required by the National Environmental Policy Act and failed to consider a reasonable range of alternatives.