The pilot of a small plane that crashed in Anne Arundel County, near Baltimore, on Thursday shortly after takeoff had been ordered moments earlier to return to Tipton Airport because he was flying in restricted air space without clearance, according to a recording of conversations between him and air traffic controllers.
Killed were Daniel Lee Eberhardt, 57, of Downers Grove–presumed to have been at the plane’s controls–and Bobbi Getz, 56, of Pittsburgh.
“You are violating the ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone),” an unidentified air traffic controller tells the pilot. “You need to land at Tipton immediately, and I’ll have them get you a number for air defense.”
The pilot is heard responding that he will comply and land immediately.
Shortly after that conversation, recorded at 3:42 p.m., the single-engine plane clipped the top of a tree and crashed in a clearing of a wooded area near the runway.