21. One of the aircraft crashed Thursday during a training flight in southern Georgia. 22. The accident led to a suspension of training flights from Aviano, many of them for jets patrolling over Bosnia in support of the NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. 23. The Air Force is fighting a sweeping lawsuit that would halt low-level training flights nationwide until a comprehensive study could be done on their impact. 24. The crash has provoked a furor there, with politicians and newspapers calling for punishment of the crew and a permanent halt to training flights. 25. The crash prompted the Air Force Air Combat Command to suspend all training flights Monday for a day of safety instruction. 26. The grounding of the aircraft, known as a stand-down, will include all training flights and air show participation. 27. The investigation will clarify details about the procedure the National Guard uses for scheduling training flights in restricted zones. 28. The legislation also could allow the military to establish new and lower training flight patterns over national forests, such as the White Mountains. 29. The pilots, who were not identified, ejected after the plane experienced mechanical problems shortly after taking off on a training flight from nearby Sheppard Air Force Base. 30. The training flights have continued and when September ends some three dozen geese will be ready for the second phase of an imaginative experiment called Operation Migration. |
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