Pilot Who Flew Too Close to Santa Monica Pier Violates Probation

The pilot convicted of flying a small military trainer recklessly close to the in the fall of 2008 was ordered Monday to perform 20 additional days of community service after he was found to have violated his probation, the Los Angeles Times reports.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner said David G. Riggs could be sent back to jail if he doesn't complete the service, the newspaper reported.

In June 2010, Riggs was sentenced to 60 days of community service and was fined $900. He was also ordered to serve three years probation and 60 days in jail. He ended up serving one day in Los Angeles County jail because of overcrowding and failed to complete the community service, according to the Times.

Riggs was convicted in June 2010 of recklessly operating an aircraft, a rarely used provision of the California Public Utilities Code. Prosecutors accused him of making low-level passes over Santa Monica Beach and the Santa Monica Pier on Nov. 6, 2008, flying an Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros, a military jet trainer that was popular in the Soviet bloc during the Cold War.

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