Balloon skydiver fighting FAA endangerment charge

“Awesome” and “wonderful.”

This is how people described the sight of David Allen Draves floating beneath a parachute near Ravenna, Ohio, USA, after he stepped from a hot air balloon at about 3,700 feet on a glorious September evening in 2012.

People expect to see a parachutist come out of an airplane once in a while, but not out of a balloon’s gondola. Draves’ jump at the annual Ravenna Balloon A-Fair came as a surprise to most, including, apparently, federal authorities.

“It was wonderful. It was absolutely wonderful,” said Jeanie Ferguson, 72, who helps organize the annual balloon festival’s grand parade and was as pleasantly stunned  as anybody. “He landed just perfectly. The crowd absolutely loved it.”

But the Federal Aviation Administration didn’t.

And now Draves, 41, finds himself contesting a government charge that he violated FAA regulations by failing to get its authorization to parachute in a congested area. The FAA says that Draves, of Kent, created a hazard as he came down over the balloon launching area at Sunbeau Valley Farm, off Ohio State Route 59.

“He never put anybody in danger,” says a festival official.

Draves’ jump, says the FAA complaint, “constituted reckless conduct so as to endanger the life or property of others.” The agency wants to fine him up to $1,100.

But Draves, an experienced skydiving instructor around northeast Ohio, western Pennsylvania and a popular southwest Ohio parachute area near Xenia, is not ready to pay a fine.

He said in a legal document in April that he has jumped from airplanes more than 8,000 times and has never had an accident. He has denied putting anyone at harm. He has demanded a hearing in Cleveland before an administrative law judge, and he wants to question an FAA official who apparently happened to be at the festival and prompted the charge.

Unless Draves and the FAA settle, the judge will have to decide who’s right. As for the balloonist who let Draves jump from his airborne gondola, punishment has already been served.

The balloonist had his certificate that authorizes him to operate his balloon suspended for 180 days, according to the FAA.

The FAA would not disclose additional details such as the balloon pilot’s name without a Freedom of Information Act request. The Plain Dealer filed such a request but the release of documents under the act is seldom quick.

Yet the FAA’s action may have had little effect on the balloon pilot’s operations, since the certificate was suspended in December of 2012 — a time when hot air balloons are garaged in Ohio. The suspension ended in time for the 2013 ballooning season.

Draves, a skydiver for 13 years, is not surrendering what he sees as his rights so readily. He has been hesitant to discuss his case, but in correspondence he sent to federal authorities in April, he denied putting anyone in danger.

“It has always been my sole intent to promote the sport of skydiving, as well as aviation, in a positive and safety conscious manner,” his response to the FAA said.

He said he is requesting a hearing “so as to defend my integrity as well as my safety consciousness in this matter.”

A call to Kate Barber, the Illinois-based FAA attorney handling the case for the government, was returned by an agency spokeswoman who said the FAA does not comment on details of pending cases.

In a written response to the agency’s complaint, Draves referred to the FAA’s witness of his jump at the Ravenna Balloon A-Fair as “Chris Paucho,” chief of the FAA’s Cleveland district flight standards office.

That is close to the name of Kris Palcho, the front line manager of the Cleveland district office. Palcho has not yet responded to a reporter’s call and email.

Two people who watched Draves float down with his parachute on that 2012 day, both with connections to the Balloon A-Fair, said they had no idea that the FAA cited Draves and the balloon pilot. They said Draves did not appear to put anyone in danger and that his landing seemed precise and safe.

“Oh, my God,” said Ferguson, a longtime coordinator of the festival, when told of the charge that Draves had put people in danger. “Why would he put anybody in danger?”

Mark Short, the current president of the Ravenna Balloon-a-Fair and a vice president in 2012, said Draves’ feat was “amazing.” And the crowd ate it up, “because it was unexpected.”

“It was pure entertainment,” said Short, 54, whose mother is Ferguson.

“The area he landed in was wide open. It was a totally wide open area and there weren’t any people.”

In fact, he said, because the landing took place in a field where balloons – already in the air – had launched, the area was roped off. “No one’s allowed in there.”

Told that the FAA wants to fine Draves as much as $1,100, Short said, “Oh, you’re kidding me.”

“He never put anybody in danger.”

That will be for an FAA administrative law judge to determine. The judge, John J. E. Sullivan, who is based in Washington, D.C., has scheduled a June 19 conference call for Draves and the FAA to discuss their dispute and their proposals for how to proceed.

So far, the parties appear to agree on one thing. The FAA, like Draves, said in a legal filing that it wants a hearing be scheduled in Cleveland.

via – cleveland.com.