A cease and desist order from the U.S. State Department stopped all training of international military personnel at the California school

January 7, 2000
Web posted at: 11:29 p.m. EST (0429 GMT)

In this story: Pakistani airmen seek training Meeting called inconclusive RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Correspondent Jim Hill

MOJAVE, California (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department has told a civilian test pilot school in California to stop all training of international military personnel while the department investigates because of fears that sensitive military information was being taught.

Under various contracts, the National Test Pilot School has trained people from the U.S. military, NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration.

It also has taught about 500 military personnel from other countries.

Pakistani airmen seek training

VIDEO CNN's Jim Hill looks at the U.S. State Department's order that the National Test Pilot School halt training of international military personnel. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     MESSAGE BOARD The U.S. military

School officials insist that they use materials available to everyone. "Everything we teach is in the public domain," said Greg Lewis, deputy director of the school.

When U.S. rules governing military test pilot training were relaxed in the early 1980's, the school opened for business, quickly becoming the largest of its kind and drawing a wide range of students.

Meeting called inconclusive

"The loss of this one class that started this week -- if they were delayed significantly -- would result in loss of revenue that could well force closure of the school," Lewis said.

State Department officials met with school officials Friday for about three hours to try to solve the mess, but the meeting was inconclusive, school officials say.

One government official said, however, that the issue may be resolved by Monday.

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