By Doug Most, Staff Writer

On Dec. 13, Paul A. Pedersen Jr. was to meet with the Federal Aviation Administration to discuss two violations from earlier in the year that might warrant a suspension of his pilot’s license.

Pedersen never made the meeting. On Dec. 9, while flying from Virginia to New Jersey, his borrowed twin-engine Beech Baron crashed into a Hasbrouck Heights neighborhood, killing him and his three passengers and fueling the already fierce debate about the congestion in the skies over North Jersey.

In addition to the two incidents that FAA records show Pedersen was under investigation for this year, his license had been suspended for 45 days in 1998 after a plane he was piloting ran out of fuel over Maryland and crashed.

The more serious case against him this year, which could have led to a 180-day suspension, stemmed from Pedersen flying a plane three times in April after another pilot reported it was leaking carbon monoxide. He has passengers on all three flights.

FAA spokesman James Peters compared it to driving a car while knowing that exhaust is coming inside, endangering everyone in the vehicle.

The second incident, for which Pedrersen could have lost his license for 30 days, involved a charge that he flew a plane with numerous safety violations. FAA records say each violation was serious enough to keep the plane grounded, but that Pedersen flew the plane anyway. The plane was a Beech Baron model similar to the one that crashed in Hasbrouck Heights.

Among the safety violations Pedersen flew with were improperly installed pins that could have prevented an emergency exit door from opening, and failing to have a "Do not open in flight" placard on a cabin window, as required.

"Anytime the FAA is seeking a civil penalty against a pilot, the person has the right to request a hearing," Peters said. Pedersen made that request, Peters said, and the meeting was scheduled for Dec. 13 at the FAA’s Eastern Regional Office at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The meeting would have allowed Pedersen, who lived in Chester, VA, or his lawyer, Charles Hundley Jr., to attempt to persuade the FAA to dismiss or reduce the suspensions, Peters said.

The more serious offense, flying a plane that was leaking carbon monoxide, arose after another pilot, Richard Bronson, flew the aircraft, a Cessna 182, on April 17.

Afterward, an FAA report said, "Bronson recorded a discrepancy concerning a carbon-monoxide leak in the aircraft cabin."

The report said Pedersen was aware of the leak, but flew the plane anyway on April 18, 19, and 26. The report said the plane was considered "unairworthy" as a result of the leak.

"No entry was made in the maintenance records for [the plane] indicating a correction of the carbon-monoxide leak until on or about April 29, 1999," the report said.

The FAA reports came a day after a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board outlined what happened to Pedersen’s Dec. 9 flight, without providing a likely cause of its crash. Determining the cause could take six months, officials have said.

The NTSB report said the six-passenger, twin-engine Beech Baron 58TC was approaching a landing at Teterboro Airport, after departing from central Virginia at 4 p.m., when Pedersen’s troubles began. The report indicates that Pedersen approached the airport from the wrong side, ignored an air traffic controller’s instructions to correct himself, made a wrong turn, flew into the path of departing planes, and nearly struck one.

Pedersen made two sharp turns to try to get back on course to land, but the plane spiraled down and crashed into the yard of a Hasbrouck Heights home at 5:27 p.m., one mile west of the airport.

Three pilots who read the NTSB report and are familiar with the Teterboro airspace speculated that Pedersen became disoriented flying into an airport that is difficult to land at in the dark because of how many lights are in the area.

They said he probably made steep turns to get back on course, but those turns could have caused hin to lose air speed, resulting in a stall, which means the plane’s wings could not produce enough lift to maintain a level flight.

The crash led to immediate complaints from residents living near the airport and politicians to have the FAA shift Teterboro’s flight patterns farther from homes, to avoid having another plane crashing into a neighborhood.

Copyright © 1999 Bergen Record Corp.