Pilot in crash known for his skill

Pilot in crash known for his skill

Accident: Experienced cargo aviator had logged many flights daily, but had to use an aircraft with a spotty safety record.

By Molly Knight and Childs Walker

maryland news

From Saturday's Sun

Sun Staff

Originally published May 14, 2004, 9:14 PM EDT

Most of the time, Thomas F. Lennon traveled solo, flying through the night in his Mitsubishi M-U2, a two-engine propeller plane. Ferrying shipments of financial documents and checks from one city to the next, he was one of a close-knit group of cargo aviators known in the industry as "Freight Dogs."

Early Friday morning, Lennon, 34, took off from Philadelphia on what would be his final flight.

Minutes before he was scheduled to land at a cargo field at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, he was killed when his plane plummeted into the ground less than half a mile from the landing strip. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Unlike many pilots who work as cargo-carriers to log hours in the air, Lennon was an experienced pilot who spent five years flying for Epps Aviation, an Atlanta-based company that transports documents and checks for Northeastern banks.

"He was a skilled pilot," said Rebecca Lorber, a company spokeswoman. "He had the same ratings as a commercial airline pilot."

Lorber also said that Lennon of Drexel Hill, Pa., was familiar with the half-hour journey between Philadelphia and Baltimore, often making the trip to carry checks for the Federal Reserve. At the time of the crash, Lennon was on his sixth consecutive trip in a day between the two cities.

Residents of Lennon's Drexel Hill neighborhood Friday expressed shock and sadness at the news of his death.

"He loved to fly," said Thomas Crane, adding: "He was just a great guy ... the best neighbor you could ask for."

Neighbor James Tiedeman said Lennon was married about a year ago, adding: "He was a nice young kid -- it's a real sad thing."

Tiedeman also spoke about Lennon's love for flying.

"He was a focused, energetic and driven young man," he said. "He wanted to be a pilot, and they'll do anything to keep flying ... He did what he had to do."

Of all the jobs available to aspiring pilots, flying freight is not the most coveted. Unlike commercial pilots, who fly the most modern aircraft to exotic destinations, cargo carriers often fly back-and-forth between cities several times a day, loading and unloading large shipments.

For Lennon, work as a cargo pilot also meant flying in an MU-2, a plane with a spotty safety record.

Lennon became the fifth pilot killed in the 39-year history of Epps, one of many companies contracted by the Federal Reserve to transport canceled checks.

Every weekend, about 200 planes fly check shipments from one Federal Reserve branch to another nationwide. As a contractor, Epps handles about 15 percent of these flights. According to officials with the Federal Reserve, Lennon's plane was carrying about 195,000 checks with an estimated worth of $115 million. Lennon also had mail for the bank on board.

Federal Reserve officials said Friday they will try to salvage the checks and process them as normal. If some or all of the checks were destroyed, back-office records will be used to recover the data and process the check amounts.

At the site of the fiery crash in Ferndale Friday, residents called Lennon a hero, noting that he narrowly missed a house in the suburban neighborhood. They marveled that the plane caused no injuries or serious damage.

"You have to feel like if the guy had any control of the plane, he knew exactly what he was doing," JoAnn Marshall said. "So many awful things could have happened that didn't."

Sun staff writer Paul Adams contributed to this article.

	Wreckage of a turboprop plane covers the ground around a home after it crashed this morning in Ferndale, killing the pilot. (Sun photo by David Hobby) May 14, 2004
	Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun Search for more photos

Checks as air cargo seen on the way out

Changes: Electronic imaging is due to be piloting most documents from one city to another.

By Childs Walker

Sun Staff

Originally published May 19, 2004

In the not-too-distant future, small cargo planes such as the one that crashed in Ferndale last week, killing its pilot, might no longer embark on such journeys. Or at least, the planes might not carry checks.

Backed by federal legislation called the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, banks are making plans to send checks by electronic imaging rather than by ground or air transport. Industry experts predict banks eventually will save more than $2 billion a year through the transition.

"It's cheaper, but it's also quicker," said Nessa Feddis, federal counsel for the American Bankers Association. "I don't think checks will become obsolete overnight, but I think the transition will move fairly quickly, assuming there are no glitches."

A significant reduction in check transporting might be apparent in as few as three years, said Alenka Grealish, senior researcher for Celent Communications, a Boston consultant specializing in technology for financial industries.

"Incidents like that crash ... are only more fuel to the fire to move to imaging," Grealish said.

Americans write about 42 billion checks a year, according to the Federal Reserve. The Baltimore branch alone takes in as many as 2 million checks a day, sorts them and sends them to local banks around the country by truck and plane. The banking industry employs more than 50,000 people to process those checks, according to Celent.

All that paper means steady work for cargo pilots like Thomas F. Lennon, who was killed in Ferndale on Friday. Lennon transported checks up and down the East Coast four times a week. His employer, Epps Aviation of Atlanta, is one of many air freight companies that contract with the Federal Reserve to keep canceled checks circulating.

Epps officials said check carrying makes up 10 percent to 15 percent of their business, and they don't see the revenue stream drying up as quickly as some banking experts predict.

"We're not getting any indication that there's a decreased demand for the service," said Rebecca Lorber, a spokeswoman for Epps. "A lot of people prefer to have their checks returned to them, and as long as that's a service the bank provides, we think there will be a demand."

That's probably an accurate assumption, said William J. Tignanelli, who supervises the Baltimore branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

"The check volume is certainly decreasing, but I don't see eliminating checks altogether," he said.

Though crashes such as Lennon's don't happen frequently enough to have an impact on the banking industry, the grounding of cargo planes after Sept. 11, 2001, helped prompt the federal legislation supporting electronic imaging.

The "Check 21" law, scheduled to take effect Oct. 28, does not require banks to send checks by imaging but does require them to accept images or printout copies of checks. Currently, banks have to strike agreements with one another to accept electronic copies of checks, and it's inefficient for them to have thousands of such arrangements.

Banking experts say the law opens the door for a mass transition from paper checks to imaging, but they're not sure how quickly that transition would take place.

Already, the Federal Reserve has eliminated more than 400 check-handling jobs and consolidated the centers it uses for check sorting. Large companies such as Bank One and Bank Of America have invested millions to be on the vanguard of imaging technology.

Tignanelli predicted that many banks will start by sending larger checks electronically so the money from those checks will begin earning interest more quickly and be less vulnerable to fraud. Less valuable checks may be carried by truck or plane for years, he said.

"We've developed systems to move these checks around very quickly and fairly cheaply," he said. "I think doing it electronically might still be a little more expensive. But that's going to change soon."

Tignanelli said he expects a steady rise in imaging next year, as more banks invest in technology, which includes scanners priced between $200,000 and $600,000 and upgraded computer networks capable of sending high volumes of scanned images quickly.

But many smaller banks can't afford to create their own imaging systems and will wait until ready-made systems are affordable and easy to purchase, he added.

Feddis said those smaller banks may one day be the greatest beneficiaries of imaging technology, because they spend a lot of money moving checks from one remote location to another.

For customers, imaging means receiving printed copies of checks instead of the checks themselves with each bank statement. Experts say some banks already have made aggressive moves toward imaging, without experiencing much backlash. But inertia is always strong, they cautioned.

"You definitely want to warm your customers up to the fact they'll be getting images back," Grealish said.

Congregation honors a pilot it never knew

Crash: A Ferndale church pays tribute to a man killed as he maneuvered his plane away from its community's homes.

By Kelly Brewington

Sun Staff

Originally published October 4, 2004

The wreckage was shown repeatedly on television news programs the day Thomas F. Lennon's small cargo plane crashed into a driveway in Ferndale, narrowly missing homes and people setting out for their morning commute.

Amid the news accounts of the crash May 14, one comment on CNN weighed on the mind of the Rev. Susan Duchesneau, whose church is about a block from the crash site. "Thankfully, just one person was killed," she remembered hearing.

"They said it as if, 'Well, it could have been worse,' and just seemed to shrug off his death," she said yesterday at a memorial dedication to Lennon at her church, the United Methodist Church of Ferndale. "But that life was very important. You can't just shrug it off. This community owes a lot to him."

Yesterday, about 100 congregation members joined to honor a man they never knew, but one they believe maneuvered his plane to cause the least amount of harm. Lennon's family members from New Jersey sat in three reserved pews during the service and afterward dedicated two wooden benches in his name as a token of their thanks.

The benches, affixed with plaques that read in loving memory of Lennon, "a gentle giant," dubbed so for his imposing 6-foot-7-inch frame and mild manner, symbolize the connection between the congregation and the pilot.

"To tell you the truth, when Tommy died, the pastor was the only one who seemed to recognize his life," said Barbara Ward, Lennon's mother, who attended service at the church the Sunday after the crash, where prayers were said for her son. "To others, he was just this person."

Moved by the outpouring of support, Ward said she wanted to offer something in return.

"We knew we wanted a memorial somewhere, and we just knew this is the fitting place," Ward said.

After an hourlong service, parishioners filed into the garden for the dedication of the benches, taking time to shake hands with Lennon's widow, parents and siblings. Some even joined the family for lunch.

"One woman just came up to us to say, 'I didn't know him, but I'll never forget him,'" said Tom Ward, Lennon's stepfather. "That means a lot."

Duchesneau said the church is known for adopting others into its small community.

"This church is really like a great big family," she said. "We really believe if anything happens in our community, it happens to us."

On the day of the crash, Lennon, 34, was flying a twin-engine turboprop plane descending toward Baltimore-Washington International Airport, just a few miles from Ferndale.

After the plane crashed, onlookers immediately hailed Lennon as a hero, saying he deftly avoided a disaster by steering clear of homes and an elementary school.

The crash site was covered in wreckage from the Mitsubishi MU-2B plane operated by Epps Air Service Inc. of Atlanta.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Lennon was making night flights carrying loads such as the canceled checks and financial documents he was delivering that morning from Philadelphia to the Baltimore branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va.

It was not his dream job, but it kept him in the skies; flying was his passion. After graduating from college, Lennon served in the Navy and later began working for Epps in Lansing, Mich., training to become a pilot.

The youngest of four children and the only boy, Lennon was "spoiled rotten" by his siblings and parents, who helped support him through school, the siblings said.

"He was always the baby. During school he was working so hard, but he really had nothing," said his eldest sister Ginny Kurtz of Burlington, N.J. "So we'd always buy him jackets and coats for Christmas and stick a little money in the pockets."

One of Lennon's sisters, Barbara Marshall of Chatham, N.J., summed it up this way: "He always had, like, five mothers."

Once Lennon was licensed, he fulfilled his ambitions by becoming a pilot for U.S. Airways. But in the company's post-Sept. 11, 2001, layoffs, Lennon returned to work for Epps.

Although he didn't have children, he was the favorite uncle of his six nieces and nephews, said family members. Awed by his height, the kids would "climb" Uncle Tommy.

"He was a wonderful guy, every day of his life," Marshall said. "We know that the kind of person he is, he probably worked so hard not to hurt anyone."

Early report finds no mechanical failure in fatal plane crash

Cargo pilot went down in neighborhood by BWI

By Molly Knight

Sun Staff

Originally published May 26, 2004

Federal investigators have found "no evidence of mechanical failure" in their probe of a May 14 plane crash near Baltimore-Washington International Airport that killed the pilot and narrowly missed several homes, according to a preliminary report issued yesterday.

The National Transportation Safety Board has been investigating what caused a Mitsubishi MU-2B piloted by Thomas F. Lennon to plummet from the sky in Ferndale as residents were leaving for work and school.

The twin-engine, turboprop plane splintered a boat stored in a yard, and its fuselage landed about 15 feet from a resident's front door.

"At this time, there does not appear to be any sign of a mechanical failure, but we're still in the very early stages of this investigation," said Terry Williams, a spokesman for the NTSB.

But Williams cautioned that it could take up to a year for investigators to determine the cause of the crash and to rule out mechanical problems with the plane.

The Mitsubishi MU-2 is a fast, cheap cargo plane with a record of 183 accidents causing almost 200 deaths during the past 36 years.

According to the report, Lennon - an experienced pilot for Epps Aviation, an Atlanta-based company that transports checks and other financial documents - last contacted BWI 10 miles from the landing strip. At the time, he reported no problems and was cleared for landing.

Shortly thereafter, witnesses saw his plane flying alarmingly close to the homes in Ferndale. The farther it dropped, witnesses said, the more the plane began to pitch and roll violently.

The report quoted a witness as saying that as the plane neared a tree line, its "nose flipped up and back."

At 7:24 a.m., Lennon's plane plunged from the sky, shearing off the tops of several trees and crashing onto the manicured front lawn of a home, where it burst into flames and smoke.

Several Ferndale residents called the 34-year-old Pennsylvania pilot a hero for his apparent ability to control the plane, avoiding homes and a school.

After a review of the wreckage, investigators found no glitches in the control panels of the aircraft. Both of the plane's engines - spattered with dirt and debris from the crash - were found to be functioning at the time of the impact. In addition, the plane's landing flaps and gear were up - signaling that Lennon was prepared to ground his aircraft.

Robert Cadwalader, a freight pilot with more than 11,000 hours of flight time, has pored over the records of crashes involving MU-2s - many of which were caused by mechanical failures that forced the planes to roll and pitch uncontrollably.

Reached at his home yesterday in Linthicum, Cadwalader said he hopes investigators consider the plane's record before ruling out a mechanical glitch.

"I think something reduced the pilot's power, putting him in a near-stall condition," he said. In aviation, he said, a "stall" means a sudden drop caused by airflow breaking from the wing.

"Once you're in that, it's virtually impossible in an MU-2 to control the plane - the wing goes down like a shot duck."

Finding crash cause may take year, says NTSB

Ferndale residents praise pilot for not striking homes

By Molly Knight

Sun Staff

Originally published May 16, 2004

Sifting through the debris of a cargo plane that crashed Friday near Baltimore-Washington International Airport -- killing its pilot and narrowly missing a house -- officials with the National Safety Transportation Board said yesterday that it could be a year before they can determine the cause of the accident.

Paul Cox, an air safety investigator for the NTSB, said that because the plane had no "black box" -- or flight data recorder -- studying the crash will be a lengthy, involved process.

"We'll complete the on-scene investigation today," Cox said. "But then we've got to examine several other factors, like the pilot's training records and the maintenance records of the plane."

Cox and his team of six NTSB workers spent the last two days examining the mangled parts of the Mitsubishi MU-2 plane, which plummeted from the sky early Friday morning, smashing into the front yard of a home in the leafy suburb of Ferndale.

While they worked, a crowd of onlookers gathered on the street behind crime-scene tape cordoning off the area. Many of them were Ferndale residents who expressed gratitude that the plane's pilot, Thomas F. Lennon, 34, was able to steer his plunging plane away from the neighborhood's homes.

"It's a miracle that he didn't hit anything else," said Carolyn Parrish, who brought her 9-year-old grandson to witness the removal of the wreckage. "I wanted him to see that this happened and only one person got hurt -- it's amazing. I think the pilot is a real hero."

Reached by telephone yesterday evening at their home in Pennsylvania, members of Lennon's family -- still stunned by the news of his death -- said they were not surprised to hear that the pilot managed to control his plane as it fell.

"To sum it up, that's the type of person he was," said Lennon's uncle, Noah Goldman. "He probably had a feeling he was doomed -- but figuring that he didn't want to hurt anyone else, he maneuvered the plane."

Goldman added: "He was a very kindhearted, good-natured person. If you needed help, he was there."

Friends and family gathered at Lennon's home in Drexel Hill, Pa., yesterday to mourn his loss, sharing stories about what they said was his passion for flying. He is survived by his wife of two years, Lara, his mother and four older sisters.

Goldman said that as a young pilot, Lennon used to pay cargo companies to allow him to fly freight operations so he could gain experience in the air. Even though he lost his job as a commercial pilot with US Airways after Sept. 11, 2001, when the company laid off 11,000 workers, Lennon remained enthusiastic about his chosen career.

Shortly after he left the airline, he returned to Epps Aviation, an Atlanta-based company that transports canceled checks and other financial documents for Northeast banks. He previously worked at Epps for three years.

"He enjoyed it because he was in the air," said Goldman, who once flew with his nephew in his MU-2 aircraft. "It didn't matter what he was doing as long as he was flying."

John Theune, a Maryland pilot whose plane crashed on New Year's Day 2002 on route to Atlanta, stopped by the Ferndale site to speak with an NTSB officer working on the investigation of his accident. Gazing at the tangled mess of metal lying on the neatly manicured lawn, Theune echoed the sentiments of others who hailed Lennon for his skill and courage.

"I don't know what happened, but I can tell you it's incredible that he put his plane down in a neighborhood like this, guiding it to avoid hitting anything," Theune said. "It's easy to panic when you're about to crash, but it seems to me that he remained calm enough to steer this plane all the way to the ground."

Ferndale residents said although they are still reeling from the fiery crash, the accident has not made them nervous about living so close to an airport.

"This is rare," said Sharon Henn, who lives directly across from where the plane came down.

The Rev. Susan E. Duchesneau, pastor of Ferndale United Methodist Church, a block from where the plane crashed, said she will address the accident during the "joys and concerns" portion of her service today.

While Duchesneau said she will remind her congregation not to be afraid of the planes that continuously roar overhead, she will also ask them to pray for the family of Thomas Lennon.

"I keep hearing reports and people saying, 'Thank God only one person was killed,'" she said. "But it's likely that the pilot diverted that plane to save lives. He's had a great impact on this small community."

Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun | Get home delivery

Crash near BWI kills cargo pilot

Plane narrowly misses homes, schoolchildren; Flier called 'complete hero'; No one on ground hurt; federal probe begins

By Andrea F. Siegel, Jason Song and Childs Walker

Sun Staff

Originally published May 15, 2004

A bustling suburban neighborhood abutting Baltimore-Washington International Airport got a stark reminder of the dangers of living at the edge of a busy airfield yesterday when a small cargo plane crashed there, narrowly missing homes, residents on their way to work and children being dropped off at school.

Federal investigators are trying to determine the cause of the crash, which killed the pilot, Thomas F. Lennon, 34, of Drexel Hill, Pa.

Witnesses said the twin-engine turboprop plane was descending toward the airport when it clipped trees, shearing off its wings, and plunged from the sky.

Several residents said they thought the pilot was trying to avoid hitting homes in the Ferndale neighborhood of Anne Arundel County, something investigators could not confirm.

"That guy was a complete hero," said Jamie McElroy, 35, who watched the plane crash from her driveway across the street. "He knew he was going down, and he made sure he did not actually hit a house. How he had the presence of mind to do that, I don't know."

Tracy Newman, a BWI spokeswoman, agreed, saying "It's obvious it took some skill to get that plane down the way he did."

Others said the plane appeared to be out of control as it wobbled across the sky.

Lennon was pronounced dead at the scene. Officials said he was flying alone in a Mitsubishi MU-2B operated by Epps Air Service Inc. of Atlanta. It was carrying canceled checks and financial documents from Philadelphia for the Baltimore branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va.

The plane hit vehicles and splintered a boat stored in a yard, its fuselage landing about 15 feet from a resident's front door.

The resident declined to comment.

"It is a miracle that others on the ground were not hurt," said Maryland State Police Maj. Greg Shipley.

The crash occurred in an older neighborhood of brick homes and ranchers along the eastern edge of the airport. Residents have long lived with the noise and risks of airplane traffic, as well as with the memory of another cargo plane crash, about a mile away, that killed an infant 15 years ago.

Several Ferndale residents said the crash didn't give them pause about living next to the fast-growing airport.

"You know they [crash], but what are you going to do? Sell your house? I'm too old to make any changes," said Walter Clark, 70.

BWI's Newman said the crash shouldn't alarm nearby residents. "It's an isolated incident. People shouldn't be concerned," she said.

The plane was approaching the airport about 7:25 a.m. when it struck the trees, crashed into a driveway and broke apart, scattering wreckage about 300 feet and causing at least one fire.

Witnesses did not report seeing or hearing anything unusual until the plane appeared to be in trouble. Many in the neighborhood watched the crash, horrified, and soon afterward gaped at the twisted wreckage strewn about a tidy community that reeked of spilled fuel. Fire crews coated the scene with foam and spent the day cleaning up the fuel.

Barry Lear Jr. of Jernigan and Trott Concrete Pumping of Hanover, saw the plane come in as he was preparing to install a pool across the street from the crash site.

"The wings were straight up and down, and then it hit a tree in the back yard," Lear said. "After it hit the tree, it became a ball of fire. Pieces flew across the street. There was a crashing and grinding noise as the propeller hit the tree."

Shortly after 7 a.m., Wolfgang W. Halbig, a school security consultant, was standing near the parking lot at North County High School in Ferndale, watching parents drop off their children and students step off school buses.

Classes began at 7:17 a.m. About 7:22 a.m., Halbig saw what he described as an unbelievable sight.

"Off by the tree line, I see an airplane flying very low. ... It came right over the parent drop-off area," he said. "It was directly over them. ... I mean, I could see the underbelly."

The plane's path took it between the high school and nearby Hilltop Elementary School, whose pupils arrived an hour later. It buzzed over athletic fields and the parking area, headed toward a red-checkered tower on the western edge of the school's property and banked sharply to the left, Halbig said.

The plane then veered to the right before jerking back to the left again, and then suddenly dived toward the ground. Halbig lost sight of it but then saw a cloud of black smoke rise into the sky. He and his two employees drove over to the scene, where emergency crews had already arrived.

"He [the pilot] had to see all those kids and parents," Halbig said. "And if he knew, then he did a great job. He went straight down; he didn't hurt other people."

The crash just missed McElroy, who watched in terror as the plane came toward her and crashed across the street, about 50 feet from where she had just pulled into her driveway.

"I heard a rumble. I looked behind me. It was a low rumble," she said.

"I saw the nose of an airplane, just like in the movies, and it was coming at me. I was turned in my seat."

McElroy said she initially feared that the plane had hit the house across the street but realized it had not. She said it appeared that the plane hit the driveway of the house and skidded a short distance into a boat parked there, sending broken wood into the air.

The plane then appeared to strike a green pickup truck in the driveway, turning it nearly halfway around, she said.

The plane broke apart, and she saw flames and smoke.

A 6-foot-long piece flew overhead and landed a few feet from the Pontiac Grand Am that she and her fiance bought recently.

"There is jet fuel all over our front yard and driveway. There are pieces of the plane just everywhere," her fiance, Joe Vogel, said shortly after the crash.

JoAnn Marshall was lying in bed waiting for her radio to come on when she heard "this terrible sound.

"It's hard to describe, like something really heavy hitting concrete," said Marshall, who lives a few doors down Ferndale Road from the crash site. She said she ran out back and saw her neighbor's back yard engulfed in two balls of flame.

She said the fire burned for only a few minutes but left a lingering odor of jet fuel.

Children, some at home and some waiting for school buses, also saw the crash.

Nine-year-old Heather Miller was making her bed when she heard a loud whoosh, "like someone speeding down the road."

She looked out the window of her home on Sunlight Circle just in time to see the airplane clear the roof of her neighbor's house by a few feet. "It was going sideways like that," she said, twisting her hand in a flip-flopping motion.

Some homes sustained minor damage, said Division Chief John Scholz of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.

"We were fortunate on many counts," Scholz said. "We were fortunate no houses were hit, and we were extremely fortunate there were no casualties."

Paul Cox, an investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board who arrived at the scene early yesterday afternoon said he plans to inspect the wreckage and review radio transmissions and other records over the next several days. He declined to say whether the pilot was in radio contact with air traffic controllers just before the crash.

The Mitsubishi MU-2 is a cargo plane with a lengthy record of 183 accidents causing almost 200 deaths over the past 36 years.

NTSB investigators are likely to focus on why the plane could not stay airborne, said Ladd Sanger, an aviation lawyer from Dallas who has settled three lawsuits involving the aircraft.

"They are going to be looking at the ability of the pilot to deploy the aircraft's flaps," he said. "They are going to be looking at power issues to determine if one or both of the engines were capable of deploying power, and they are going to be looking at the propellers."

The plane crashed as many in the neighborhood were heading out their doors, said Sharon Henn, who lives diagonally across the street from the crash site.

"In this neighborhood we all leave just past 7:30 a.m.," she said. "We all pull out around the same time, with our little ones. We usually have to watch so we don't hit each other.

"It could have been a lot more tragic than it was."

Betty Bittner, who has lived in the neighborhood for about 50 years, agreed, saying, "This guy had to have had God as a co-pilot, too. When you think of the schools he flew over, it's a miracle."

Sun staff writers Gus G. Sentementes and Molly Knight contributed to this article.

Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun | Get home delivery

Safety record of planes questioned

MU-2 crashes have killed 196 in the past 36 years

By Tom Pelton

Sun Staff

Originally published May 15, 2004

The Mitsubishi MU-2 is a fast, cheap cargo plane, with two propellers, cigar-shaped fuel tanks at the ends of its wings - and a lengthy record of 183 accidents causing almost 200 deaths over the past 36 years.

Although it can carry 11 people, it's not often used for passenger service these days and has a "slight reputation problem," according to Jane's Civil Aircraft, a respected guide to airplanes.

The MU-2 remains popular, however, among two groups: Caribbean drug smugglers and cargo companies speeding overnight shipments of checks between banks, according to the guide and cargo pilots interviewed yesterday.

The pilot of one of the 40-foot-long planes was performing the latter task for a Georgia-based charter company when he was killed yesterday morning in a crash near Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

"I think it's a demanding airplane, but this is the first time we've had a fatality in one," said Pat Epps, founder of Epps Air Service Inc., which owned the plane.

Twelve years ago, the propeller of a Mitsubishi MU-2 owned by Epps flew off while the plane was near Philadelphia. The blades ripped into the body of the plane, cutting off the plane's electricity and forcing the pilot to make a crash landing, which he survived.

"You don't like to say it's part of the business, but these things happen," said Epps. "It's unfortunate, and you don't like to see it."

The 39-year-old company provides chartered flights to corporate clients and rushes checks and other documents overnight between banks. It has 175 employees and about 40 pilots.

Epps Aviation has lost five pilots to crashes over the past 14 years in other kinds of small planes. Three of the company's pilots were killed in January 2002 when a Canadair Challenger 604 crashed while carrying two corporate clients in Birmingham, England.

"It's not as bad as racing cars," said Epps, whose father, aviation pioneer Ben T. Epps, was killed in an airplane accident. "I'm 70 years old, and I'm still flying acrobatics, and I haven't had an accident yet."

Federal aviation officials refused to comment on the MU-2's safety record yesterday, and representatives of Mitsubishi did not return phone calls. But some pilots and attorneys who have been involved in litigation pointed to the plane's history.

South Dakota Gov. George S. Mickelson, who died with seven others in the crash of an MU-2 in April 1993 near Dubuque, Iowa, was one of 196 people killed in the planes since 1968, according to National Safety Transportation Board records.

Ladd Sanger, a Dallas attorney who has filed three lawsuits over fatal and near-fatal crashes of MU-2s, said the airplanes can be difficult to handle at times because they lack ailerons, the metal wing flaps that are used to control the rolling of planes.

If an MU-2 is traveling slowly - for example, just after takeoff - and an engine fails, it can flip over and be nearly impossible to control, Sanger said.

"The freight haulers like them because they have a good cargo capacity and good range," Sanger said. "But the MU-2 has an accident rate that is among the highest for twin-engine turboprop planes."

After an MU-2 carrying six people on a ski trip crashed near Newcastle, Colo., in March 1992, killing everyone aboard, the victims' families sued Mitsubishi. The plaintiffs' attorneys presented evidence that 21 percent of the 755 MU-2s built had crashed, compared with 8 percent of comparable turboprop planes, according to the West Group legal records company. The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount.

Bob Cadwalader, a freight pilot from Linthicum with more than 11,000 hours of flight time, said MU-2s have relatively small wings and powerful engines, making them even harder to control if an engine fails.

"It's a very comfortable, very fast ride, but if anything goes wrong, there's no margin for safety," Cadwalader said.

Lauren Peduzzi, spokeswoman for the transportation safety board, would not discuss whether federal officials are considering the MU-2's accident history as they investigate the cause of yesterday's accident.

"We don't even know all of the circumstances of the accident, so we can't just even speculate on the cause," Peduzzi said.

The planes were built by Mitsubishi in Japan and Texas from 1963 to 1986. They can cost more than $350,000 and have a maximum speed of about 330 mph, a range of about 1,260 miles and a wingspan of about 40 feet.

The plane that crashed yesterday suffered minor damage to its propeller, wing and landing-gear door during an accident almost a year ago in Detroit. On May 28, its pilot tried to land in heavy fog and struck a runway light, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.

Since 1979, the FAA has issued 20 orders - called airworthiness directives - to Mitsubishi to remedy potential safety problems with MU-2s, according to federal records.

Among other steps, the directives have required training MU-2 pilots on how to predict icing on the wings, inspections of the cockpit windshields for cracks, installation of new deicing monitoring systems and replacement of bolts on the wingtip tanks.

"That is not too many, actually, considering the fact that we issue hundreds of these directives a year," said Alison Duquette, an FAA spokeswoman.

But Keith Franz, a Towson-based attorney who specializes in aircraft litigation, said 20 FAA directives concerning one make of airplane sound like a disturbingly high number. "That's a very poor record," he said.

Sun staff writers Walter F. Roche Jr. and Childs Walker contributed to this article.

Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun | Get home delivery

Pilot dies in crash of small plane

By Foster Klug

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LINTHICUM, Md. — A small plane carrying checks and other financial documents crashed yesterday into the yard of a home near Baltimore-Washington International Airport, killing the pilot.

No one on the ground was injured when the plane crashed about 7:25 a.m., stopping just short of the home's front door, authorities said.

"This is nothing short of a miracle that that did not occur," said Maj. Greg Shipley of the Maryland State Police.

The MU-2 "high-wing" turboprop plane was flying from Philadelphia to a private cargo terminal at BWI when it crashed in the Ferndale area of Anne Arundel County, just east of the airport property and less than a half-mile from the nearest runway.

Hours after the crash, firefighters continued to spray foam on the wreckage to prevent an electrical fire, said Battalion Chief John Scholz of the county fire department. Vapors from the spilled gas would fuel any sparks, he said.

"The hotter the day gets, the more the fuel gives off vapors," Chief Scholz said.

Temperatures reached the mid-80s yesterday in the Baltimore area.

The plane lay in pieces, with the wings sheared off and the fuselage broken into pieces strewn over the home's driveway and yard. The wreckage and a nearby pickup truck were covered in firefighting foam.

The plane was one of 11 owned by Atlanta-based Epps Aviation that fly checks and other paperwork for banks in the Northeast, said owner and President Pat Epps.

Mr. Epps said the pilot, identified as Thomas F. Lennon, 34, of Drexel Hill, Pa., was the only person on board.

"This is the first pilot we've lost in these 20-plus years we've been running this part of the business," Mr. Epps said.

Mr. Epps said the pilot was part of a tight-knit group known in the industry as "freight dogs" who run cargo flights overnight. Mr. Lennon was part of a group based mostly out of Philadelphia.

Epps Aviation, one of five air operations in the country that transport paper cargo for banks, flies about eight routes a night in the Northeast, Mr. Epps said.

Mike Doyle, 53, said the plane roared low over the neighborhood before it crashed about a block from his house. His home is not in the flight paths of planes using BWI, so he knew something was amiss when he heard the plane overhead.

"He was probably 100 feet over the ground — so low it rattled the house," said Mr. Doyle, who was getting his three children off to school when the plane went down.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were on the scene by yesterday afternoon. NTSB investigator Paul Cox said the crash left a path of wreckage that was 300 feet long.

The Mitsubishi MU-2 is about 14 feet high and between 33 and 40 feet long. It has a wingspan of nearly 40 feet, with a maximum cruise speed of 350 mph and a range of more than 1,700 miles.

The plane that crashed was under contract with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and was carrying 195,000 checks — written for about $115 million — along with other paperwork, spokesman Pierce Nelson said.

The Federal Reserve Bank uses specialized, private air services to move about 15 million checks a night from one processing facility to another, Mr. Nelson said.

Federal Reserve officials will inspect the checks that went down in the crash to determine if they're usable, Mr. Nelson said. If not, the agency will trace them using information collected from the banks.

Pilot Killed When Plane Crashes in Neighborhood

Small Craft Barely Misses Md. Homes

By Eric Rich and Nelson Hernandez

Washington Post Staff Writers

Saturday, May 15, 2004; Page B01

A twin-engine cargo plane crashed in a densely populated residential neighborhood near Baltimore-Washington International Airport yesterday morning, killing its pilot but causing no injuries on the ground as it narrowly missed several homes.

The Mitsubishi turboprop, traveling from Philadelphia, roared toward BWI from the northeast and plummeted as it approached for landing at 7:25 a.m., officials and residents said. It sheared limbs off trees and broke apart before the fuselage came to rest on its side in front of a home on Ferndale Road.

The pilot, Thomas F. Lennon, 34, who was alone in the plane, was dead when rescue crews arrived. Lennon, a pilot for Epps Aviation Inc. of Atlanta, had spent the night ferrying bundles of checks back and forth between BWI and Philadelphia International Airport under contract from the Federal Reserve Bank, according to bank officials and Epps Aviation. The trip to BWI, the sixth such leg, was scheduled to be the last of the night.

The cause of the crash remained unknown last night. Pat Epps, the company founder and president, said Lennon had worked for him for five years and was regarded as an excellent pilot. "He was one you didn't worry about," Epps said. "He was that experienced."

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board requested records of communication between the pilot and air traffic controllers as well as radar data. The plane, an MU-2B-60, was not equipped with a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder.

"Miracle" was a word residents in the Ferndale neighborhood used often yesterday as they considered how much worse the crash might have been.

"It didn't hit any houses, nothing. It's unbelievable," said Don Anderson, a resident of Chaney Lane, a private road near Ferndale Road.

As it dropped out of the sky, witnesses said, the plane passed low over homes and swimming pools on Sunlight Circle and then dipped below the tree line as it crossed Chaney Lane.

"It sounded like it was right on top of me," recalled Anderson, who was in his second-floor bedroom. Across his yard, perhaps 60 feet away, limbs were sheared off oak trees at roughly the same height. A jagged piece of the plane was lodged in the trees.

The plane clipped the trees and then appeared to crash just beyond the back of Anderson's property, where a wing burst into flames, Anderson said. It passed between two homes -- causing no substantial damage to either -- and then crushed a motorboat before coming to rest in a front yard.

"I just saw yards on fire, like two big bonfires," said Jo Ann Marshall, who lives three doors from the crash site.

Many residents said they knew by sound alone that the plane was in trouble. "It was a thundering noise," said Lisa Ratsch. From the porch of her home on Williams Road, one street over from Ferndale, Ratsch watched the plane's final moments.

It wobbled, she said, and then rolled upside down, diving into the ground and cartwheeling end over end.

"Fuel spewed out and started a fire," she said. "Everyone ran out. I heard someone say 'Oh my God,' and I called 911."

When her 14-year-old stepdaughter, Kate Evans, learned what had happened, she told her stepmother, "I think we should move."

Most adults, however, seemed unperturbed. No approach paths for larger aircraft are directly over the neighborhood, and no planes have crashed there since 1989, when a twin-engine plane crashed into a home, killing the pilot and a 7-month-old child in the house.

"I don't even think about the planes," said resident Gilbert Engel. "You get hit by lightning, you get hit by airplanes."

Ladd Sanger, an aviation lawyer in Texas who has litigated three cases involving crashes of MU-2s, described it as a "very unforgiving" airplane in an emergency situation. It can fly at high speeds, cruising at more than 300 mph, but also can be difficult to control, he said. "The design of the airplane is its strong point and the chink in its armor," he said.

For the residents of Ferndale, the small planes that fly overhead are rarely disruptive.

"For that plane to [crash] between two houses and end up on a driveway and not hit either home is a miracle," said Gary Floyd of Sunlight Circle. "How else could you look at it?"

Staff writers Matthew Mosk and Jamie Stockwell and staff researchers Bobbye Pratt and Madonna Anne Lebling contributed to this report.

Small Plane Crashes in Maryland, Killing Pilot

UPDATED - Friday May 14, 2004 5:39pm

LINTHICUM, Md. (AP) - A small plane crashed in a residential neighborhood Friday, shearing off treetops and slamming into a boat and a pickup truck before its fuselage stopped at the front door of a house. The pilot was killed, but no one else was hurt.

It was "nothing short of a miracle" that no one on the ground was injured in the crash east of Baltimore-Washington International Airport, said Maj. Greg Shipley of the Maryland State Police.

Mike Doyle, 53, said the plane roared low over the Anne Arundel County neighborhood before it crashed about a block from his house, which is not in the usual flight path.

"He was probably 100 feet over the ground - so low it rattled the house," said Doyle, who was getting his three children off to school when the plane went down.

The plane took off from Philadelphia and was headed to BWI (website - news) when it crashed about 7:25 a.m., said airport spokeswoman Cheryl Stewart. She said it was an MU2 "high-wing" turboprop plane.

The plane crashed in front of a home less than a half-mile from the nearest runway. Hours after the crash, firefighters continued to spray foam on the wreckage to prevent a fire, firefighter John Scholz said. The plane lay in pieces, with the wings sheared off and the fuselage broken into pieces strewn over the home's driveway and yard.

The FAA (website - news) and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating.

The plane was one of 11 owned by Atlanta-based Epps Aviation that fly checks and other paperwork for banks in the Northeast, said owner and president Pat Epps. He said the pilot, Thomas F. Lennon of Drexel Hill, Pa., was in his 30s and was "very experienced."

"This is the first pilot we've lost in these 20-plus years we've been running this part of the business," Epps said.

Thomas Crane, 65, called Lennon "a perfect neighbor."

"He was going to do whatever it took to fly," Crane said. "We used to talk about how fortunate it was that he had the type of job he loved."

Small plane crashes near Baltimore airport

Saturday, May 15, 2004 Posted: 11:12 AM EDT (1512 GMT)

LINTHICUM, Maryland (AP) -- A small plane crashed in a residential neighborhood just east of Baltimore-Washington International Airport Friday morning, killing the pilot, an airport spokesman said.

A search of the plane found only the pilot, and no one was injured on the ground, said Maj. Greg Shipley of the Maryland State Police.

Noting that the fuselage landed at the front door of a house, Shipley called it "nothing short of a miracle" that no one else was hurt.

Mike Doyle, 53, said the plane roared low over the neighborhood before it crashed about a block from his house, which is not in the usual flight path.

"He was probably 100 feet over the ground -- so low it rattled the house," said Doyle, who was getting his three children off to school when the plane went down.

The plane took off from Philadelphia and was headed to BWI when it crashed about 7:25 a.m., said airport spokeswoman Cheryl Stewart. She said it was an MU2 "high-wing" turboprop plane.

It was carrying a cargo of financial documents, airport spokesman Jonathan Dean said.

The plane crashed in front of a home less than a half-mile from the nearest runway. The wreckage and a nearby pickup truck both appeared to be covered in firefighting foam.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board were en route to the scene to begin an investigation, Dean said.

Atlanta-based Epps Aviation registered the plane with the Federal Aviation Administration. A man who answered the phone there Friday morning said the company would not comment. He declined to identify himself.