Air Force, Ranchers
Talk On Flights Suit

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —(AP)— The U.S. Air Force and Otero County ranchers have begun private talks aimed at settling a lawsuit against plans to expand low-level training flights over southern New Mexico and West Texas.

A hearing before U.S. District Judge Bruce Black broke off Friday as the Air Force was to begin presenting its case in the ranchers' lawsuit that seeks to halt the planned expansion.

"We're trying to clarify some of the issues we don't understand, and maybe ask them some questions about things that concern us, and these talks will be ongoing," said Frank Bond, the ranchers' attorney.

He declined to provide details of the negotiations, but said getting a clearer idea about the frequency of flights over rural ranch land would be crucial.

The negotiators are slated to next meet Dec. 14 in Alamogordo.

The ranchers contend the increased flights would harm their property values, the economic efficiency of their ranches and their rural lifestyle.

Expanded training missions would lead to as many as 4300 sorties, or training flights, a year, the Air Force has said. About 15 percent of those missions would occur after 10 p.m.

Some of the flights would be by the German air force, which has trained its pilots in Tornado fighter aircraft in a top flight school at Holloman Air Force Base since September 1995.

"It wasn't until we started hearing more about how many flights we might be facing that we realized we might have a problem," Charlie Lee, an Otero County rancher, testified Friday.

Lee is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the U.S. Air Force from building a new target complex on Otero Mesa in Otero County.

The complex is part of the plan for the expanded training flights.

It took a while before ranchers discovered that a sortie refers to a mission and that it could include more than one airplane, Lee said.

"The flights are scheduled from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. That's pretty intense pressure, and we don't believe we can withstand the pressure," he said.