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YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. — Facing mounting criticism from environmentalists, government officials and even the U.S. Marine Corps, Fox Broadcasting Co. has bailed out on its plan to stage a plane
crash in the Mojave Desert on live TV, a company spokesman said Friday.
Fox had contracted a reality TV company and an aviation effects team to produce an hourlong special called “Jumbo Jet Crash: The Ultimate Safety Test,” in which a remote controlled passenger
jet would be slammed into a dry lake bed near Joshua Tree National Park.
Initially, the jet crash was scheduled to air during the November sweeps rating period, but because of the stunt’s technical complexity, the show was pushed back to February.
“We have no plans of doing that special,” said network spokesman Joe Earley. “It was an idea we had in development, but it’s not going to happen now.”
Fox spent $250,000 in preliminary work on the project, the aviation effects team said. Earley declined to say why Fox pulled out of the show, or if recent air disasters, including the
crashes of EgyptAir Flight 990 and golfer Payne Stewart’s jet, had anything to do with the decision.
Environmentalists and officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management have been objecting to the project since it was publicized in September, saying it could endanger desert wildlife.
Last month, commanders at the Marine Corps training center near Twentynine Palms sent the Federal Aviation Administration a letter criticizing the crash proposal as reckless.