quarter mile off the 130th Street
beach last Sunday afternoon, claim-
ing the lives of two Ocean City
Police officers, one a veteran and
avid aviator who was piloting the air-
craft and another who just joined the
force full time last year.
owned and piloted by veteran OCPD
officer Tom Geoghegan Jr., 43, of
Ocean City, and his passenger, OC-
PD Officer Joshua Adickes, 27, of
Berlin, took off from the Ocean City
Municipal Airport in West Ocean City.
The plane moved up along the coast
out over the water heading north until
about 4 p.m., when something went
terribly wrong.
a downward spiral in the area of 130th
Street and crashed into the ocean on
its belly, sinking immediately. The
crash was witnessed by hundreds on
the beach on a crowded Sunday after-
noon in late June. According to wit-
nesses, the plane was flying at a high
altitude before moving into some sort
of aerobatic maneuver, but it remains
uncertain late this week if the plane
was attempting a stunt or if it experi-
enced technical problems, or perhaps
both.
speed, according to witnesses, and
crashed into the ocean, followed by
a loud boom. Kurt Dawson, a former
OCBP lifeguard and pilot and flight
instructor, who was on the beach at
130th Street on Sunday afternoon,
said this week he instinctively look-
ed up and realized quickly the air-
craft was in trouble.
said. "I didn't realize it was in a spin
and I kept watching as they de-
scended thinking they were going to
pull out of it. When it got to around
500 feet, I realized they weren't go-
ing to make it. About three seconds
later, the plane crashed into the
ocean and it sounded like a cannon
going off."
or mechanical trouble or if the air-
craft was attempting a miscalculat-
ed maneuver.
"Thinking back on the whole thing, it
definitely sounded like it was out."
flight instructor and pilot hat, and
reached for his OCBP lifeguard hat.