Flier strayed from course;
crashed plane in 1996

Saturday, December 11, 1999

By DOUG MOST
Staff Writer

The pilot who crashed his twin-engine plane into a Hasbrouck Heights neighborhood late Thursday afternoon ignored an air traffic controller's commands, had crashed another plane three years earlier that cost him a license suspension, and was being investigated for two other flying incidents, officials said Friday.

Paul A. Pedersen Jr., never made a distress call or even sounded concerned about the flight -- even though he had strayed from his landing approach and was ignoring pleas from an air traffic controller to get back on course, sources and officials said Friday.

Pedersen and the three passengers he was flying from Virginia all died in the fiery crash, which occurred two miles west of the airport Thursday afternoon.

Although he was an experienced pilot with almost 10 years in the cockpit, Pedersen, 36, had crashed a plane in Maryland in 1996 after running out of fuel. He and a passenger were injured, and his license was suspended for 45 days as a result. Two other incidents this year involving Pedersen were being investigated before his death. Details of those incidents were not available Friday.

Investigators said that a strong odor of fuel and the intensity of the explosion and fire at the crash site has eliminated lack of fuel as a possible cause of Thursday's crash. It may take six months for investigators to determine whether the accident resulted from engine failure, pilot error, or some other cause.

All that is certain is that at some point, Pedersen lost his way en route to Runway 19 at Teterboro, and turned west instead of staying on his eastbound course.

"He was not where he was supposed to have been," said Robert Hancock, the lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. "The question is why."

His simple wrong turn should not have been enough to cause his plane to crash into a quiet neighborhood in Hasbrouck Heights after the 90-minute flight from the Richmond area. All four people on board -- Pedersen and three passengers from Virginia -- were killed. Three rescuers suffered minor injuries.

Hancock said the NTSB has recovered both engines and both propellers, but most of the plane melted in the fire. Officials said the 1980 twin-engine plane had no previous problems, accidents, or service difficulties.

One source at Teterboro who listened to the tapes of the communication between Pedersen and the air traffic controller said there never was a hint of concern in Pedersen's voice.

"There was no distress call," the source said. "He didn't sound panicked. He just didn't follow his instructions and fly as he was told to fly, and he became disoriented."

Sources said Pedersen told air controllers that he was familiar with the area and had flown into Teterboro before.

Hancock reiterated that: "There was nothing that would indicate an elevated level of concern in his response."

Pedersen was given a direct eastbound heading, but instead turned west. His instructions were to fly over the airport at 1,500 feet, turn left, and come around to the runway from the north. Instead, he told controllers he was coming from the opposite side and he never crossed the airport, turning right before reaching it.

"The plane made a 180-degree right turn, and then a very abrupt left turn," Hancock said. It then disappeared from radar.

Just after 5:30 p.m., the twin-engine Beech Baron 58 that Pedersen had borrowed from an acquaintance in Virginia slammed into a grassy back yard between four homes on Washington Place in Hasbrouck Heights, setting off a series of explosions and shooting smoke and flames 100 feet into the evening sky.

The three passengers on board died immediately, and Pedersen's badly burned body was pulled from the wreckage by two firefighters and a Marine.

Pedersen's first crash occurred on Oct. 18, 1996, just after 11 p.m., when a Cessna he was flying from Chesterfield, Va. to Baltimore-Washington International Airport ran out of fuel and slammed into the woods in Pasadena, Md., according to an NTSB report. Pedersen was unhurt, but his passenger suffered a broken right leg.

"All of a sudden the aircraft started yawing violently left to right, because both engines were alternating power, then no power," the passenger, Richard Wendtland, 34, of Silver Spring, told investigators.

"[The pilot] asked, 'Which engine is failing?' and I said 'They're both failing, you're out of fuel.' He tried to access fuel in the [auxiliary] tanks, but there was no fuel anywhere in the aircraft."

Both engines subsequently stopped producing power and the aircraft crashed into the woods, the report said.

The Federal Aviation Administration suspended Pedersen's license Jan. 20, 1998, citing four reasons: Being unfamiliar with the weather forecast -- it was raining at the time in Baltimore -- and fuel requirements, operating an aircraft in a careless or reckless manner and endangering the life or property of another, not carrying enough fuel to fly to an alternative airport after reaching the first, and not carrying enough fuel to fly for 45 minutes after reaching an alternative site.

Enforcement action by the FAA also is being considered for Pedersen in connection with two other incidents, in April and July of this year. But FAA spokesman James Peters said details of those incidents could not be immediately released.

Details of Thursday's crash began to emerge slowly Friday.

The twin-engine 1980 plane owned by Gregory Stoneman of Mechanicsville, Va. left Hanover County Municipal Airport near Richmond about 4 p.m. Thursday with Pedersen at the controls. With him were Roland "Chip" Brierre III, his wife, Cary Brierre, and Elaine Moses, a longtime friend of Pedersen's and bookkeeper at his Sundance Aviation business. The Brierres were going to a party in New York and had left their 8-year-old son with his grandparents.

The group was expected to return to Virginia late Thursday.

The flying conditions were clear for Pedersen, who also was licensed to fly helicopters and had received his commercial pilot's license in November 1990. That allowed him to fly passengers for a fee. He filed an instrument flight plan in Leesburg, Va., for the 90-minute flight to Teterboro, officials said.

As Pedersen approached Teterboro, flying south to north and then turning west to east, he was in contact by radio and radar with controllers at New York Terminal Radar Approach control facility in Westbury, on Long Island. As he came within about 1 1/2 miles of the airport, he prepared to land and was switched to talk directly to Teterboro controllers.

That's when the trouble began.

"Whether he had an immediate mechanical problem that he didn't have time to tell us about, we don't know," said James Stark, the facility representative at Teterboro for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "The controller did an amazing job, while also handling seven or eight other planes at the same time. You suddenly realize you don't have this plane on your frequency or radar, and you see an explosion. Then it hits you."

Copyright © 1999 Bergen Record Corp.