Pilot Of An F/A-18 May Have Violated FAA, Navy Regulations

The pilot of an FA/-18E Super Hornet is under investigation following a low pass over classrooms at UC Berkeley last Tuesday.

The Navy confirms that the pilot, whose name has not been released, flew at an altitude of between 2,500 and 3,000 feet over the city of Berkeley during a training exercise.  Lt. Reagan Lauritzen told The Navy Times that the pilot is being investigated for possible breaches of both civilian and Navy regulations.

The fly-by may have been one brother's tribute to another. According to the local news site Berkeleyside, an anonymous person sent an email to say that his brother is a pilot stationed at NAS Lemoore in California, but was moving to Texas at the end of the week, "so he thought it would be cool to fly over campus while I was there before he left," the person wrote.

It is not clear that any FAA or Navy regulations were broken. The flight was reportedly under FAA control through for its entirety, but since there were complaints from the public, Lauritzen said it is "not uncommon for the Navy to investigate flights resulting in public disturbance."

(Image from file)

FMI: www.navy.mil