Plane Turned Back To Starting Point After ADIZ Encroachment

The circumstances surrounding the fatal downing of a modified Piper PA-46 (file photo, below) Thursday near Maryland's Tipton Airport have raised eyebrows in the aviation community... and many pilots are questioning the role the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) enveloping the area may have played in the accident.

According to published accounts, shortly after the modified Jetprop took off from Tipton on the afternoon of October 19, an air traffic controller radioed the pilot he was flying in the restricted airspace without proper clearance. The pilot was squawking 1200 -- VFR -- and not a code assigned by ATC, as is required for all traffic flying through the ADIZ.

Transcripts indicate the controller told the pilot -- believed to be Daniel L. Eberhardt -- he would have to land back at Tipton, and give the proper authorities a call. The pilot told the controller he would comply.

"30-November, I’m too busy to give you that phone number," the controller told the pilot a short time later. "Maybe you’ll get away. Just turn it off and land and call us on the phone for your clearance." Again, the pilot responded in the affirmative.

The ADIZ incursion might have resulted in a steep fine, and even the loss of the pilot's license. We'll never know how heavily that possibility weighed on the pilot's mind, however. As it neared the airport, the modified Malibu turbo-prop clipped a tree and crashed a half-mile away from the airport... killing Eberhardt, 57, and 56-year-old passenger Bobbi Getz.

A source of frustration for pilots for the past three-and-a-half years, the DC ADIZ was set up as an ostensibly temporary precaution around Washington prior to the invasion of Iraq. To date, there have been over 2,000 violations of restricted airspace -- all of them accidental.

Chris Dancy, Media Relations Director for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said the group would withhold comment on the accident until the FAA and NTSB investigations showed what impact, if any, the ADIZ may have had. But the group's position on the controversial security zone remains unchanged.

"It places a significant burden on both pilots and air traffic controllers," Dancy told Aero-News. "[P]enalties for even the smallest of infractions are extremely harsh (the equivalent of having your driver's license suspended for a rolling stop at a stop sign); and it needs, at the very least, to be made more operationally efficient. To that end, AOPA has made several recommendations which thus far have not been acted upon."

**   Report created 10/23/2006   Record 1
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IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: 9130N        Make/Model: PA46      Description: PA-46 Malibu, Malibu Mirage
  Date: 10/19/2006     Time: 1945

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: Fatal     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Destroyed

LOCATION
  City: FORT MEADE   State: MD   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  AIRCRAFT CRASHED INTO A WOODED AREA 1/4 MILE FROM DEPARTURE END OF RUNWAY
  23 SHORTLY AFTER TAKE OFF FROM TIPTON AIRPORT, FORT MEADE, MD

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   2
                 # Crew:   1     Fat:   1     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Pass:   1     Fat:   1     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   
                 # Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: KFME 1036Z WIND CALM, VISIBILITY 5 SM, CEILING 1,200 OVERCAST, TEMPERATURE
         20 DEWPOINT 17 ALTIMETER 29.81

OTHER DATA

  Departed: FME                         Dep Date:    Dep. Time:     
  Destination: LL22                     Flt Plan: UNK          Wx Briefing: 
  Last Radio Cont: 
  Last Clearance: 

  FAA FSDO: BALTIMORE, MD  (EA07)                 Entry date: 10/20/2006

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.aopa.org, www.tiptonairport.org