Google founders' "party plane" flies into legal dispute

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A Silicon Valley judge is being asked to stop an aviation designer from gabbing about a plan by high-flying Google founders to convert a wide-body passenger jet into a globe-ranging party plane.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Joseph Huber scheduled an August 7 hearing to resolve the dispute.

The judge declined to issue an emergency restraining order sought by Larry Page and Sergey Brin on grounds the designer put the wealthy duo and their families at risk by divulging design details.

Among the proposed features Leslie Jennings shared with the Wall Street Journal were hammocks hung from the jet ceiling and Brin having a "California king" size bed in his mid-jet suite adjoining Page's bedroom.

Jennings was quoted as saying that Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt referred to the aircraft as "a party plane" and was to have a forward lounge.

Information about the jet's layout could enable assailants "to be most effective in a violent attack or hostage-taking situation," former US
Secret Service agent Eric Powell said in an affidavit filed in court.

The details also tip potential spies off to where best to plant listening devices on an aircraft used by Google executives and their associates, Powell maintained.

"Concerns about these matters are not theoretical," Powell wrote.

The slated show-down in Huber's courtroom stemmed from a contract dispute between Jennings and Blue City Holdings, the Delaware limited liability company that technically owned the used Boeing 767-200.

Bruce Cleeland, the lawyer representing Jennings in the California case, said he received a copy of the latest filing on Monday and that the purpose of the lawsuit "seemed to be a moving target."

Jennings was being accused of violating a court order not to share the jet plans with anyone, according to Cleeland.

"I'm going through it now to figure out what, if anything, is accurate or inaccurate," Cleeland told AFP.

Jennings, 67, was hired by Blue City to transform a former Quantas Airways jet capable of carrying 180 passengers into airborne transport worthy of an "executive/head-of-state," court documents said.

Google co-founders Page and Brin reportedly bought the jet for personal use in 2005. The Internet billionaires have strived to keep details of the jet's renovation and whereabouts secret.