The group of airport tenants who had filed an injunction to stop the Planes of Fame Chino Air Show from taking place in 2017 have withdrawn their request, according to Yanks Air Museum, one of the plaintiffs. The director of Yanks Air Museum, Christen Wright, in a press release said, “We do not want others to be harmed, as we have been every year, by the unfair actions of Planes of Fame. We decided to drop the preliminary injunction for the sake of attendees and vendors.” Steve Hinton, well-known air racer and Planes of Fame president, had promised prospective attendees their money would be refunded if an injunction shut down the event.
Last week, Judge Michael Sacks, who had been assigned to the case, removed himself from the matter at the request of the plaintiffs after disclosing to the parties that he had worked on airport matters in his prior job as assistant county counsel. Judge Sacks’ recusal resulted in the hearing date being pushed out to April 28, which left little time for a positive resolution before the May 6-7 airshow. Michael Thayer, president of Flying Tigers Aviation, one of the plaintiffs seeking the injunction, said, “We were getting too close to the airshow. We tried to start conversations with Planes of Fame immediately after the 2016 airshow but they were unwilling to sit down and create a binding agreement. We were tired of having meetings where they would agree to a plan and then not keep their word. Even after filing suit, they made no effort to resolve this out of court.”
The airport tenants suing to stop the show, Yanks Air Museum, Flying Tigers Aviation, Socal MRO, Zangeneh Aeronautics and AFT Center, say Planes of Fame intentionally blocked and obstructed their businesses during the week of the event in prior years. They have committed to seeking “a speedy court date” for their continued efforts to gain some degree of oversight for future shows.
Photo: Greg Goebel, Licensed under Creative Commons
