By MITCHEL MADDUX and RICH CALDER

Herald & News

The license of the commercial pilot flying the plane that crashed in Hasbrouck Heights Thursday night was suspended after a 1996 accident in which the aircraft he was flying ran out of gas, seriously injuring a passenger.

Paul Andrew Pederson Jr., whom the Associated Press reports was piloting the ill-fated flight Thursday, lost his pilot's license for 45 days after being cited following a nighttime crash in a wooded area near Baltimore-Washington International Airport. That crash resulted in the destruction of a twin-engine Cessna propeller plane and a passenger's serious injury.

In Hasbrouck Heights Friday, federal investigators continued to sift throught the wreckage of the Beechcraft Baron aircraft that crashed into a residential neighborhood on Thursday, killing Pederson and three others who were traveling on the plane. Investigators in New York have not confirmed who was flying the aircraft that went down on Thursday.

Officials said they are still trying to determine what caused the privately owned aircraft to crash, but said that the plane was off course as it approached to land at Teterboro airport.

Pederson, the 37-year-old owner of a Virginia general aviation and charter flight company whom friends described as an experienced professional, died of burns suffered during the Hasbrouck Heights crash.

Three others aboard the aircraft, Roland "Chip" Brierre III, 41, who owned a boat brokerage in Glen Allen, Va., his wife, Cary Bell Brierre, and Elaine Moses, 35, an employee of Pederson's Sundance Aviation firm, were killed in the crash, officials and friends said.

Jimmy Seay, an employee at Brierre's Commonwealth Boat Brokers firm, said his boss and Pederson were friends who flew together frequently. The Brierres were traveling to a Manhattan dinner party being given Thursday night by friends they know from sport fishing. The group was planning to return to the Richmond area late Thursday night after the dinner, Seay said.

At a press conference Friday afternoon, National Transportation Safety Board Investigator Robert Hancock he offered no explanation as to the cause of the crash. But said the plane was not where it should have been as it approached the Teterboro airfield.

Hancock said the plane departed from the Hanover County Airport north of Richmond at about 4 p.m. The pilot was male, and the passengers included another man and two women. As it flew over Bergen County, the plane was heading toward Teterboro Airport from the west. The Teterboro air traffic control tower instructed the pilot to fly over the airfield at 1,500 feet and turn left toward Runway 19, Hancock said.

The pilot responded that he was positioning the plane to approach the runway by taking a right turn, Hancock said, and radar confirmed that the plane had deviated to the north.

The air traffic controller told the pilot again that he should over-fly the airport and make a left turn, Hancock said. Shortly thereafter, the plane made an abrupt, 180-degree turn and descended.

"He was coming at the runway from the opposite side," Hancock said. "He was given instructions to enter a certain way. Now, the question is, why that was not followed. We do not know at this point. He was not where he was supposed to have been - but the question is why. And we're still working on our examination."

Hancock said investigators pieced together the account from witness accounts and radar information. The accident occurred around 5:30 p.m., Hancock said.

"There is nothing to indicate an elevated level of concern in (the pilot's) responses," he said, referring to the taped radio transmissions. "There is nothing on the tape to indicate that the pilot made any type of emergency call prior to the accident."

The pilot said nothing when he made the abrupt turn prior to crashing, nor did he tell the tower he was experiencing any mechanical or instrument problem, Hancock said.

Witnesses to the crash said the saw the plane rolling in the air only seconds before it crashed into trees, and minutes later exploded into flames.

Hasbrouck Heights police were in charge of identifying the crash victims and had been looking at dental and medical records, Hancock said.

NTSB investigators said they had recovered all of the debris from the scene of the crash, and planned to examine the charred, curled aluminum parts that were housed Friday in one of Teterboro airport's warehouses. Two engines, two propellers and various other plane parts were recovered. Typical of small planes, there were no flight data recording "black box" or cockpit voice recorder on the aircraft, Hancock said.

"Most of the rest of the airplane was consumed or melted by the fire," Hancock said.

The pilot's ratings from the FAA included an instrument rating and a multi-engine rating. The pilot also had a commercial pilot's license, which enabled him to fly planes for hire or compensation, Hancock said. Investigators said they will look more closely at the pilot's background and the plane's maintenance records, Hancock said. They will also interview witnesses, examine the radar and air traffic control data, and examine the plane's remains. The investigation could take upwards of six months to complete, Hancock said.

In the 1996 crash near Pasadena, Md., a report by the National Transportation Safety Board said a Cessna 310Q airplane flown by Pedersen was destroyed on Oct. 18, 1996 when it slammed into trees during a forced landing. That flight took off from Chesterfield, Va., and was supposed to conclude in Baltimore. The airplane had been aloft for about one hour and 40 minutes when the engines stopped producing power. There was neither fuel nor evidence of fuel found at the accident site, the report said.

The plane was tipping from side to side as the engines alternately turned on and off, the report said.

The NTSB concluded that "the pilot's inadequate preflight planning/preparation and inadequate management of the airplane's fuel supply, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and a forced landing at night, caused the accident Factors related to the accident were: an inaccurate fuel quantity indicating system, darkness, and trees in the emergency landing area."

According to the report, the pilot told the passenger that the fuel gauges were inaccurate but that he knew how much fuel was aboard. The pilot also stated that some 'unscheduled' stops would be made in order to buy cheaper fuel. The airplane flew for approximately five hours after departing and fuel purchases totaling 50 gallons were made before the accident.

The FAA has cited Southern Virginia Aviation six times since 1996 for a variety of violations, said Kathryn Creedy, an agency spokeswoman. The violations included three for drug-testing irregularities and two for irregular record-keeping, she said.

Pederson leaves behind a wife and a small child, friends said, and the Brierres left behind an eight-year old son.