20 YEARS OF MARIJUANA FLYOVERS CALLED USEFUL, SAFE

Perched in helicopters or small airplanes, pilots and trained spotters have
searched fields in North Carolina for more than 20 years looking for marijuana.

The flights have resulted in the seizure of more than 82,000 marijuana
plants so far this year, according to the N.C. State Bureau of
Investigation. Last year there were about 90,000, which ranked fifth in the
country.

The counterdrug efforts in 2000 -- the most recent year available -- shut
down more than 530 marijuana growing operations and also resulted in
seizures worth more than $108,200,000, records show.

Federal and state officials said the missions are effective and safe. But
Wednesday afternoon in Chowan County -- about 240 miles northeast of
Charlotte -- three lawmen died when their single-engine plane nose-dived
into a cotton field, witnesses told investigators.

"These low-altitude missions are safer than general aviation," said Don
Edwards, commander of the N.C. Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, which owned
the plane. "These guys gave their lives to keep drugs off the street."

Killed in the crash were: Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Sgt. Anthony Scott
Futrell; Chowan County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Edward Ashley Jr.; and
Boone police Maj. Robert Kennedy. They were on an off-duty assignment with
the N.C. Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, a civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air
Force.

Officials say Futrell, an experienced pilot, was likely flying at at least
500 feet -- the minimum altitude over sparsely populated areas, according
to federal regulations. Kennedy, a trained spotter, was looking for
marijuana, possibly with binoculars, a digital camera or a slow-motion
video recorder.

Chowan County Sheriff Fred Spruill said they, along with a two-person crew
flying about 3 miles away, were doing aerial surveillance of the entire county.

"I've flown on some of the missions myself," he said. "It's safe. I never
thought twice about it."

A spokeswoman with the national headquarters of the Civil Air Patrol said
the agency had 1.54 accidents per 100,000 miles flown in 2001. The rate is
five times safer than all other types of aviation combined, she said.

Before Wednesday, the agency had not reported a death during a counterdrug
mission since two volunteers died in Oregon in 1999.

National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday the low-altitude and
low-speed flights give the pilot little room for error.

The N.C. Wing of the Civil Air Patrol has been conducting reconnaissance
flights at the request of state, local and federal law enforcement since
1986, officials said. Similar flyovers are also conducted by the N.C.
Highway Patrol aviation unit, the N.C. National Guard and the State Bureau
of Investigation.

Most of the illegal marijuana plants found in the last two years have been
in the less populated central N.C. counties, officials. The tricky flight
patterns make the N.C. mountains the hardest area in which to detect
marijuana plants, officials say.

Spotters can generally detect marijuana from the air based on its
distinctive look, officials say. July and August are the peak months for
reconnaissance because the plants are at or near maturity and easier to see.