Frank Corder managed in one desperate act at the end of his life to both shatter the image of a fortress-like White House and grab the publicity he coveted.
Corder's life was in shambles when he steered a small plane into the trees surrounding the White House early Monday morning. When the plane came to rest propeller-first in the grass, Corder was dead.
Within hours, the 38-year-old truck driver from Perry Point, Md., was somebody: His face was on TV around the world.
Corder, an alcohol and drug abuser, was depressed over his failed marriage and father's death. With little to live for, he acted on his admiration for a West German teen-ager who skirted Moscow's air defenses in 1987 and landed his small plane in Red Square.
"He wanted to go out with a bang is my guess," says Joe Kesser, manager at the Harford County, Md., Airpark. He gave Corder a flight lesson five years ago and knew Corder's father, an airplane mechanic.
Corder took off from the airpark in an orange and white Cessna 150 belonging to the airpark owners late Sunday or early Monday, Kesser says.
He is thought to have flown low en route to Washington, probably to avoid radar.
The Secret Service - embarrassed by Corder's foray - says his flight path was along busy 17th Street, over the National Mall and toward the Washington Monument. From there, he looped around and flew over the White House gates and onto the South Lawn.
He came in low with lights and engine off to crash on the South Lawn - exploding the picture of a heavily guarded White House.
"People who are shocked by this would also be shocked to learn that jaywalkers cross the street without using crosswalks," says Frank McGuire, editor of Security Intelligence magazine in Silver Spring, Md.
The Secret Service reportedly has anti-aircraft Stinger missiles; they would have been useless against Corder.
-- The Secret Service says it had only seconds' warning before the crash. Heat-seeking missiles need time to warm up.
-- If Corder's plane were hit, it would send debris raining onto buildings in downtown Washington, raising a great risk to the public.
-- And some of the 850 planes that take off or land at Washington's National Airport routinely stray close to the forbidden zone.
Until it turned and headed toward the White House, Corder's Cessna could have been flown by a pilot who became lost, saw the beacon at National Airport and was heading there, McGuire says.
Usually, any aircraft flying over Washington would show up on radar at National. The Secret Service said Tuesday that radar spotted Corder's plane but air controllers failed to notice until after the crash.
Because of noise regulations, virtually no aircraft take off or land at National during the night. Controllers have no reason to watch the radar every second if they are not in radio contact with any aircraft.
The numerous buildings between the airport and White House could have blocked a low-flying airplane from radar.
Because of this, some have suggested that a "tactical radar" be set up at the White House. Radar could be designed to detect aircraft in the restricted zone.
