Plane-crash headline was off course

In your Feb. 5 edition, an article ran under a headline that misleadlingly announced that the NTSB report indicated that student pilot Chezray Hayes "flew too low." The report did not say that. The writer may have inferred that from the fact that the instructor responsible for supervising Hayes had recommended he fly at 3,500 feet altitude and his altitude at the time of the accident was 1,500 feet. That is an acceptable and legal Visual Flight Rules altitude.

Recommended altitudes issued in preflight briefings aren't written in stone. There could be a variety of good reasons Hayes chose to fly at 1,500 feet.

Any local pilot can tell you the weather around Molokai is prone to sudden and severe change and has resulted in a number of aircraft accidents: A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter with two experienced pilots on board hit a ridge on Molokai not far from where Hayes did.

By all accounts, Hayes, a member of the Civil Air Patrol, was a responsible young pilot. Even flying as he had been trained, he might have encountered a problem that was beyond his level of training and experience to cope with.

Neither the readers nor young Hayes' memory is well served when a headline implies that disregarding instructions was the cause of the accident.

Paul Pollitt
Pilot, Aloha Airlines
Certificated Flight Instructor
Certified ALPA aircraft accident investigator

Too bad the world isn't theological

Christian theology teaches that war is wrong, which is true in a spiritual and moral sense.

Unfortunately, we live in an emotional and egotistical world. Therefore, some parables and precepts are not persuadable in the "real world."

Tetsuji Ono
Hilo

We need 311 line for nonemergency calls

Last night at about midnight, my husband and I checked on our boat at Heeia Boat Harbor and found that a water pipe on the opposite pier was broken and was shooting water into the air. We couldn't find a cutoff valve, so we used the pay phone to call 411 and got the number for the Board of Water Supply. When I said I had no more change, the operator suggested that I call collect.

That didn't seem like a great idea, so we scrounged around and found enough coins to call the Board of Water Supply, where we got some guy who didn't seem to know what a marina or harbor was and who couldn't say whether anyone could respond that night.

I gave up on him and reluctantly called 911. The dispatcher asked me if it was fire, police or ambulance. I said, "It is not an emergency," and she connected me with an officer who promised to send someone.

It was hard to call the emergency number for such a minor thing, but I had to call someone. I think we need a 311 line so minor emergencies do not tie up the 911 line, and so people do not talk themselves out of calling, as I almost did, when the situation does not seem important enough to call 911.

Jennifer Story
Kaneohe

Coble did not learn from past mistakes

I am outraged and disgusted by U.S. Rep. Howard Coble's (N.C.) comments about the World War II internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry. Coble's comments reveal his ignorance of the social and cultural forces that shaped Executive Order 9066, which authorized the mass exclusion of Japanese from the West Coast.

The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians determined that the internment was "carried out without adequate security reasons and without any acts of espionage or sabotage ... and were motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria and a failure of political leadership."

To right these wrongs, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 to provide reparations to victims. The presidential letter accompanying reparation checks stated, "We must learn from the past and dedicate ourselves as a nation to renewing the spirit of equality and our love of freedom."

Americans again are experiencing a leadership failure. Coble's refusal to retract his statements displays a lack of understanding that renders him unfit to remain as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security.

Jessica Asai

UH students should be better prepared

Why are so many adults taking pre-college-level English classes at the University of Hawaii? I wonder if they are English as Second Language students like me. If they were raised in this country, why do they need to take the same class I'm taking?

After attending a few lectures, I understood why. Most of the students were newly graduated from high school. They talked on their cell phones in class, asked for extensions on their work, sometimes turned their backs on the instructor, didn't turn in their homework ... I felt bad for the instructor. They were not taking English to learn; they were socializing.

We all know that the public school system could improve. But is it really a school's fault that adults don't know how to read and write at the college level? Even if you went to a good school, it doesn't mean that you should automatically take college-level classes at UH.

Parents who pay to send their kids to private schools will make sure they are not slacking. On the other hand, parents who send their kids to public schools sometimes don't check their kids' homework or get involved.

Family support is the key to a kid's success. If I see my kids skipping a class, they had better run from me because I will not tolerate that. Parents should check their kids' homework, talk to the teachers, get involved with PTA. The kids will notice the difference, and so will you.

Akeyo Garcia

Don't make it easier to get driver's license

The fact that the Senate wants to recognize, in SR 15, a Matricula Consular as proof of identity is not in Hawaii's best interest.

How does that determine if that person is a legal immigrant or legal visitor? In times of uncertainty and terrorism it would be foolish to recognize this type of identification. This resolution -- in conjunction with SB 71, in which the Senate wants to amend the driver's license application process for those without Social Security numbers by requiring alternative photo identification -- is a recipe for disaster.

What is to stop those here illegally from obtaining Hawaii driver's licenses and then voting in our elections? The Senate is going too far.

Sandra Anderson
Hilo

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