An Annapolis pilot’s body was recovered in the Tred Avon River after the small plane he was flying crashed on his way into Easton, Maryland. The pilot has been identified as Robert Eugene Merlini, 56.
The plane belonged to the University Research Foundation, whose Maryland Advanced Development Laboratory is based near Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County. The plane took off from Tipton Airport bound for Easton Airport, according to the FlightAware.com flight tracker. Merlini, a contractor for University Research Foundation, was carrying equipment to the Eastern Shore.
The Anne Arundel County Fire Department’s dive team located and recovered Merlini’s body in the water, assisted by the Natural Resources Police Underwater Operations Team and other boat crews from Queen Anne’s, Dorchester and Talbot counties. The pilot was the only person aboard the plane.
Reports of the crash first came in via 911 calls from witnesses. The Coast Guard Sector Maryland learned that a twin-engine Cessna 402 plane crashed with one person on board into the Tred Avon near Easton around 9:30 Tuesday morning, about a half hour after it took off.
State Police say emergency crews responded to the area of the 6800 block of Travelers Rest Circle in Easton to reach the wreckage.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, Merlini had reported experiencing engine failure before the crash. The research foundation that owns the plane says he was hired to do atmospheric sampling, but on this flight Merlini’s job was simply to move the plane from the Western Shore to Easton.
The research foundation’s website says that along with carrying out atmospheric sampling, it works with experiments and prototypes in aviation, computer science, atmospheric physics, electro-optics, digital cartography, radar and infrared sensors.
University Research Foundation president Eric Heidhausen spoke at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, taking responsibility for any mechanical failures the plane may have experienced. “We’ve had that plane for 30 years,” he said. “We’re going to find out what caused all of this… to make sure other pilots can learn from whatever happened today.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
