http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/n...8671433.htm?1c
Posted on Sat, May. 15, 2004
Plane crash kills Drexel Hill man
Thomas F. Lennon was alone in a plane that went down in Maryland. No one on the ground was hurt.
By Stephanie L. Arnold
Inquirer Staff Writer
A Drexel Hill man was killed yesterday after the plane he was flying crashed in a residential neighborhood just east of Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Anne Arundel County, Md.
Thomas F. Lennon, 34, a pilot for Atlanta-based Epps Aviation, was headed from Philadelphia International Airport to BWI. The plane crashed about 7:25 a.m. in front of a house, less than a half-mile from the nearest runway.
Family members said aviation officials had told them that Lennon was experiencing plane trouble.
"It's just hard to grasp. It just doesn't seem possible," said Noah Goldman, Lennon's uncle.
Lennon was the plane's only occupant, and no one was injured on the ground, said Maj. Greg Shipley of the Maryland State Police.
Noting that the fuselage had landed at the front door of a house, Shipley called it "nothing short of a miracle" that no one else was hurt.
Goldman said Lennon had been a pilot for several years, and had been working at Epps Aviation for a little more than two years. He had been laid off by US Airways after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Goldman said.
Pat Epps, owner and president of the company that flies canceled checks and other paperwork for banks in the Northeast, described Lennon as "very experienced." Epps said that Lennon was the first company pilot killed in a plane crash.
The plane was an Mitsubishi MU-2B-60 high-wing turboprop, according to an airport spokeswoman. The plane was one of 11 owned by Epps Aviation.
Hours after the crash, firefighters continued to spray foam on the wreckage.
Representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were en route to the scene.
Lennon and his wife, Lara, had no children.
Contact staff writer Stephanie L. Arnold at 610-313-8093 or
[email protected]. This article contains information from the Associated Press.