the West Ocean City area and the
pilot was instructed to return to the
airport as a safety precaution. After
returning to the airport area, the pi-
lot began his final five-mile leg
descent to Runway 14. A company
employee who observed the air-
plane moments before the crash
told NTSB investigators he saw the
airplane on a low level final ap-
proach above the trees that border-
ed on the approach end of the run-
way and although it was flying low,
the witness assumed the aircraft
had cleared the trees.
described as a black plume of
smoke rising from the trees. The
wreckage was soon found in the
wooded area on the opposite side of
Route 611 from the airport.
Friday dinner date perished when a
Cessna 172P crashed into the
ocean on its final approach to the
Ocean City Municipal Airport.
the Bay Bridge for a late dinner in
Ocean City.
was soon landing and attempted to
make arrangements for a taxi to
pick up himself and his passengers
including his wife and another cou-
ple.
would have to call for a taxi when he
got on the ground.
doomed pilot radio in he was on the
final approach for Runway 20 and
then say, "Is that right?" The witness
told NTSB investigators he then
saw the doomed plane transition
from a horizontal flight to a vertical
one as the plane went out over what
he characterized as a "black hole."
pilot relying only on visual naviga-
called spatial disorientation, mean-
ing the dark, moonless sky is not
easily distinguishable from the dark
ocean and no horizon is discernible.
disoriented because when you on
downwind and head out over the
ocean like that, you may as well get
on the instruments and stay on the
instruments until you turn final."
plane was seen going down in the
ocean.
He made that half turn out over the
ocean and then he went straight
down."
the resort area in the days following
the crash. The bodies of the two
other victims, including the pilot and
the wife of the other victim, were
recovered when the wreckage was
found on the ocean floor nearly a
month later.
and landings at the Ocean City
Airport when he crashed in the
dense fog onto the runway and per-
ished.
to complete three takeoffs and land-
ings at night. After the third landing,
the pilot was to board two passen-
gers and fly to an undetermined lo-
cation. However, after the plane
took off for the third time, a dense
fog rolled in over the airport, accord-
ing to a witness.
told the NTSB. "It was coming off
the ocean and it was coming in.
When the fog came in you couldn't
see anything, anything at all. I
believe the man was coming in to
land on 14 and couldn't find the air-
port."
was flying low and flew over the
landing gear was down and illumi-
nated by the airport's rotating bea-
con.
rolling in," the witness said. "It was
probably giving him a false horizon.
It was unique when it was rolling in.
I heard the airplane all the way to
impact."
ed into the ocean just off the coast
of Ocean City claiming the lives of
the pilot and its two female passen-
gers.
sengers had purchased a 15 minute
flight and the plane took off from the
Ocean City Municipal Airport around
2:10 p.m.
radioed in he had "two female pas-
sengers on board who wanted a
thrill."
turn heading north to fly along the
shoreline. A witness on the beach,
who was also a certified pilot, told
the NTSB the plane was doing
"Unusual maneuvers, unusual in the
sense that they were out of the ordi-
nary for an airplane traveling north-
bound along the coastline."
scents commonly referred to as S-
turns. The witness said the pilot
might have been warming up to do
aerobatics.
200 to 300 feet and that he thought
the pilot was about to attempt a
loop, and as he watched, the nose
raised up, but instead of continuing
over and completing the loop, the
plane went vertical.
ward the ocean surface and the wit-
ness said he then realized the air-
craft did not have the altitude suffi-
cient to recover. The plane complet-
ed one more turn before impacting
the ocean at a high rate of speed.
Ocean City Police officers and stun-
ned the local community on Sunday
made for an atypical couple of days
early in the week, but the fatal crash
in the resort area is not entirely rare.
mer, from the banner planes to the
flights in and out of the municipal
airport, Ocean City has seen its fair
share of fatal plane crashes over
the last 15 years or so.
remote area of a defunct golf course
in Berlin, killing the pilot.
barrack, deputies from the Worcest-
er County Sheriff's Office and offi-
cers from the Berlin Police Depart-
ment responded to Bunting Airport
in Berlin after receiving 911 calls re-
porting the crash.
(WCBI) and the Worcester County
Fire Marshal's Office also respond-
ed for assistance.
area of the old Beach Club golf
course in Berlin, which has been
closed for several years. The pre-
liminary investigation revealed the
single-engine banner plane struck a
tree near the golf course and crash-
ed, killing the pilot and only occu-
pant on the aircraft.
tional Acrojet Special crashed in the
woods just across Route 611 from
the Ocean City Municipal Airport,
killing the pilot.
sonnel, the plane took off from the
Ocean City Municipal Airport around
10:10 a.m. to begin the first of four