Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 13, 1994                   TAG: 9409130071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FROM THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE AND THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: ABERDEEN, MD.                                 LENGTH: Medium

PILOT TALKED OF SUICIDE CRASH; FAMILY THOUGHT HE WAS JOKING

``He said, `Hey, check that guy out. Hey, he really made a name for himself,''' John recalled Monday.

At 1:49 a.m. Monday, Frank Corder, 38, crashed a stolen single-engine Cessna onto the White House lawn - making a name for himself, but not surviving to receive the kind of attention that went to 16-year-old Matthias Rush who landed safely in Red Square in May 1987 after flying undetected 550 miles through Soviet airspace.

Corder's death in such a public manner stunned his family and friends, but they knew he was in emotional trouble. During the past year, nearly every aspect of his life had begun to unravel - his small trucking company failed, his father died, and his 10-year marriage had just recently collapsed.

John Corder said his younger brother was not politically minded, was not registered to vote and did not see President Clinton when he appeared at Aberdeen on Sunday. In his speech at Aberdeen, Clinton mentioned the need to help veterans at the Perry Point, Md., Veterans Administration Hospital, where Frank once was treated in the detoxification unit.

Monday, relatives said Corder had spoken of a desire to crash a plane into the White House, though apparently no one took him seriously.

At the one-story Aberdeen home where they spent their childhoods, John Corder, holding back tears, sketched out the details of his brother's life.

``He said, `If I'm going to check out, that's the way I'm going to do it. I'm going to crash a plane into the White House,''' John Corder said of a phone call he had received about a year ago. ``We thought it was a joke.''

Ups and downs - mostly downs - had punctuated Corder's life. Twice divorced, a high school dropout, an Army washout and an alcoholic, his highs were very high and his lows very low, his brother recalled. His arrest record shows a series of scrapes with the law, many involving drugs, alcohol and driving.

Frank Corder took a flying lesson two years ago near his hometown, but his instructor became aware of his checkered legal past and refused to let him continue.

It was the same Cessna single-engine plane in which he had taken that one lesson that police officials said Corder stole from the airport for his early morning flight to Washington, about 70 miles away.

John Corder said Frank got his pilot's license in Myrtle Beach, S.C., a few years ago, but hadn't done much flying recently. His pilot's license called for flying by visual flight rules only, which precluded legal flying at night.

Keywords:
FATALITY