Tom Fischer and Glen de Vries
~
November 11, 2021: Aircraft crashed under unknown circumstances in a heavily wooded area.
Hanuman Aviation LLC
Fischer Aviation
Date: 11-NOV-21
Time: 17:30:00Z
Aircraft Make: CESSNA
Aircraft Model: 172S Skyhawk SP
Registration: N90559
Event Type: ACCIDENT
Highest Injury: FATAL
Total Fatal: 2
Flight Crew 1
Pax 1
Activity: INSTRUCTION
Flight Phase: EN ROUTE (ENR)
Operation: 91
Aircraft Missing: No
Damage: DESTROYED
City: HAMPTON TOWNSHIP
State: NEW JERSEY
Those who may have information that might be relevant to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation may contact them by email witness@ntsb.gov, and any friends and family who want to contact investigators about the accident should email assistance@ntsb.gov. You can also call the NTSB Response Operations Center at 844-373-9922 or 202-314-6290.
Stillwater Area Volunteer Fire Company -
At approximately 4:15pm yesterday afternoon the Hampton, Stillwater, and Fredon Fire Departments were dispatched to a report of an aircraft down in the woods in Bear Swamp near Walnut St in the Kemah Lake Section of Hampton Township.
Chief Dave Gunderman and Chief Steven Sugar arrived on scene shortly after and set up a staging area on Walnut Street.
Chief Gunderman assumed Command of the Incident and Chief Sugar assumed Operation Command and made entry into the woods with a small team of Fire personnel and New Jersey State Police.
The aircraft was located approximately 1800 feet in the woods by New Jersey State Police Helicopter NorthStar and a civilian aircraft.
The victims were found deceased in the aircraft and crews began marking out a trail to get more personnel and equipment into the scene to begin extrication.
UTVs from Stillwater, Fredon, and the New Jersey Forest Fire Service brought in the Jaws of Life and cut a road in with chainsaws to the crash site.
Once the New Jersey State Police concluded their investigation a lengthy extrication took place to remove the victims and transport them out to the staging area.
Once the victims were extricated the operation ceased for the night and resumed at 8am this morning.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board arrived to conduct their investigation.
While that took place New Jersey Forest Fire Service cut in another road to bring machinery in to remove the plane.
Once again members of Hampton, Stillwater, and Fredon used extrication tools to assist with removing parts of the plane for the investigation.
The plane was removed from the woods at approximately 6 p.m. this evening.
The Sussex County Hazmat team then took over the clean up of the area and all units cleared from the scene.
We would like to thank Ogdensburg, Frankford, Highland Lakes, and Lafayette Fire Departments along with the Sussex County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Management, Sussex County Hazmat Team and New Jersey Forest Fire Service for their assistance during this call.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the pilots during this tragic event.
Stillwater Area Volunteer Fire Company
Tom Fischer, certified flight instructor and owner/operator of Fischer Aviation in Fairfield, New Jersey
~
Glen de Vries
~
The owner and head instructor of Fischer Aviation, a family-run flight school in Essex County, and a New York City man who joined actor William Shatner on a trip to space last month have been identified as the two people killed in a plane crash in Hampton on Thursday, state police said.
Thomas P. Fischer, 54, of the Jefferson portion of Lake Hopatcong, a second generation flight instructor, was killed along with Glen M. de Vries, 49, of New York City, according to Trooper Brandi Slota, a New Jersey State police spokesperson.
The Federal Aviation Administration alerted public safety authorities around 3 p.m. Thursday that the single-engine Cessna 172 went missing near Kemah Lake. Emergency crews found the wreckage around 4 p.m.
Police said the aircraft was on its way to Sussex Airport from Essex County Airport in Caldwell.
Maria Njoku, a spokesperson for the FAA, said Friday that a preliminary report on investigators' findings of why the plane may have crashed will be released in about a week. An initial report on the FAA website shows the aircraft was "destroyed" in the crash, which occurred "under unknown circumstances."
The Carnegie Mellon University trustee and founder of Medidata Solutions, a tech company, de Vries traveled into space on October 13 aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft, fulfilling an apparent lifelong dream.
"We are devastated to hear of the sudden passing of Glen de Vries," Blue Origin said in a statement Friday. "He brought so much life and energy to the entire Blue Origin team and to his fellow crewmates. His passion for aviation, his charitable work, and his dedication to his craft will long be revered and admired."
De Vries began his private pilot training with Fischer in February 2016, according to the Fischer Aviation website. He often posted on his social media about his flights and purchased his own single-engine Diamond aircraft in 2020. In an Instagram post in early October, de Vries displayed an FAA-issued Pilot Proficiency badge while posing with his plane at Essex County Airport. The badge is given to pilots who maintain proficiency in flight basics to help mitigate accidents due to pilot errors, lack of proficiency and faulty knowledge, according to the FAA website.
ischer opened his flight school in March 2012 with his wife, Jodi, and had logged thousands of hours in the sky and obtained several advanced certifications. Author Joshua Ferris wrote a four-part series for the magazine "Popular Mechanics" in 2015, documenting his attempts at learning to fly under the direction of Fischer.
In 2009, Fischer was lauded after he successfully landed a Cessna aircraft in a parking lot at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall with a student pilot aboard, according to several news reports. Authorities found an oil leak caused the engine of the plane to shut down about one mile east of the mall, forcing Fischer to target an open area to land. The plane struck a median and tree before it nose-dived on the asphalt near JCPenney, leaving Fischer and the student pilot with minor injuries. It was not the same plane involved in Thursday's crash.
The unusually quiet Kemah Lake community was an active scene Thursday evening, as local firefighters used UTVs to assist authorities into an illuminated tract of the heavily wooded Bear Swamp Wildlife Management Area off Fenner Road.
The aircraft that went down Thursday is believed to have been reported inaccurately on the FAA website, although a spokesperson did not respond to a request for clarification. The track of what is believed to have been the aircraft departed Essex Airport at 10:30 a.m. and was last seen at 10:47 a.m., according to Flightaware.com, a digital aviation company. The flight track shows the last known location in Hampton Township.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
Tom Fischer
~
A pilot who recently accompanied William Shatner on a trip to space was aboard a plane that crashed and killed him and another man in New Jersey, one of his company's employees confirmed.
Glen M. de Vries, 49, of New York, New York, and Thomas P. Fischer, 54, of Hopatcong, New Jersey, were both aboard the Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP that crashed in a wooded area of a state park near Lake Kemah around 4 p.m. Thursday, according to New Jersey State Police spokeswoman Brandi Slota and the Federal Aviation Administration.
de Vries accompanied Shatner on the highly-publicized October 13 mission with Jeff Bezos' company, Blue Origin, online records show. His plane had been reported missing nearly an hour before it went down.
"The world lost a visionary," tweeted Nadia M. Bracken, who worked at Medidata Solutions, co-founded by de Vries. "May his legacy of innovation in the life sciences industry live on."
Medidata has been touted as "the world’s most-used clinical research platform." It was acquired by Dassault Systèmes for $5.8 billion two years ago.
de Vries -- who studied probabilistic algorithms at NYU and has a degree in molecular biology and genetics from Carnegie Mellon -- once described himself as the nerdiest kid at summer camp.
The Manhattan native went on to helped create one of the world's largest software companies, with a staff recently estimated at nearly 700 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan,
Tarek Sherif, who co-founded the company with him once called de Vries "absolutely brilliant," as well as "open-minded and very gregarious."
Not everyone knew that de Vries was also a ballroom dancer, as well as a marathoner.
August 25, 2009
Tom Fischer
August 2009
August 25, 2009 - The flight instructor who crash-landed his powerless plane in a Rockaway Townsquare mall parking lot on August 25, 2009 is nursing a sore back — but not much else — and plans to return to his job teaching others to fly today.
As his Cessna 172 lost power over Morris County shortly before noon Tuesday, Thomas Fischer thought about the wife and son he wanted to return to on Tuesday night.
But that afternoon, the 42-year-old flight instructor didn't have time to dwell on those thoughts while the small four-seater, enroute to Essex County Airport in Fairfield from Greenwood Park Airport, where he and his student, Akiko Gittens, stopped very briefly before taking off again.
During the training flight, the 30-year-old plane began experiencing engine trouble, leading Fischer to take over control of the aircraft from Gittens, a 39-year-old certified pilot from New York City who is working toward a certificate in flight instruction.
"We realized we were in a situation where we had to land immediately," Fischer said Wednesday, outside his Lyndhurst home during a brief interview. "The area (where the plane could land) was getting smaller and we had to find the path of least resistance."
And he did, but not on an airport runway, but rather a mostly open parking lot in front of the JCPenney department store at the Rockaway Townsquare mall.
During the emergency landing -- one witness called it a "controlled crash" -- the Cessna clipped a tree, leading to plane to spin and eventually come to rest on its nose. The landing damaged to the airplane, which is owned by a Paramus aircraft leasing company, including a clipped right wing and a front tire that snapped off during the touch-down.
Years of training as a flight school student helped him pull off the successful maneuver, resulting in serious injuries to neither Fischer nor his student. Both walked away from the wreckage under their own power.
He also brought the plane safely back to earth without damage to property or injury to people on the ground.
"The first thing to do is to look for the biggest open space possible," he said. He believed the mall's parking lot was large enough and sufficiently unoccupied, making it an ideal makeshift runway.
As he approached the blacktop, Fischer turned off the valves that control the airplane's fuel and electrical mechanisms to minimize fuel leaks and prevent sparks that could ignite a fire.
Fischer, who is tall and strapping, said he had years of training in flight simulators in Georgia, where he lived before moving to a two-family home in Lyndhurst two years ago.
He said he didn't have time to panic and had only one goal: to land safely.
Fischer has been a professional small plane pilot for about six years. Fischer said he has helped 23 students earn certificates in flight instruction, private flying and instrument/commercial knowledge. He has logged 2,700 hours in the cockpit.
Before heading out for a walk Wednesday afternoon, Fischer said he will return today to work at Air Flight Training Systems Inc., a flight instruction school located at Essex County Airport.
He continued to recover Wednesday from back pain — a result of Tuesday's hard landing. He said he was feeling much better that afternoon after taking some muscle relaxers.
"I'm doing a lot better," he said Wednesday.
After the crash landing, Fischer was taken by ambulance to the emergency room of St. Clare's/Dover General Hospital but was released a few hours later. Gittens was transported, too, but refused medical attention.
Fischer's employer, Air Fleet Training Systems Inc., released a statement Wednesday, praising Fischer's skilled landing: "We (school officials) thought he did a great job. It was well thought-out and he did a fine job."
Before making the career switch to professional flying, Fischer worked as a home builder and for a courier service.
Aviation Accident Final Report - National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board did not travel to the scene of this accident.
Investigation Docket - National Transportation Safety Board:
Location: Rockaway, New Jersey
Accident Number: ERA09LA481
Date and Time: August 25, 2009, 12:15 Local
Registration: N6117R
Aircraft: Cessna 172RG
Aircraft Damage: Substantial
Defining Event: Loss of engine power (total)
Injuries: 1 Minor, 1 None
Flight Conducted Under: Part 91: General aviation - Instructional
Analysis
The certificated flight instructor (CFI) and dual/student pilot were practicing maneuvers when the CFI noticed that the left main gear of the airplane was wet. As he looked for the source of the substance he noticed that the airplane’s oil pressure was critically low and immediately headed back to the airplane’s base. On the way, the engine came “to a halt with the propeller stopping” and the CFI elected to land in an empty section of a mall parking lot. The airplane’s nose landing gear contacted a curb and the right wing impacted a tree before coming to a stop. An examination of the wreckage revealed the fluid on the wheel to be oil leaking from the engine, which covered the bottom and empennage section of the airplane. A teardown examination of the engine found the No. 3 and No. 4 pistons with damage consistent with overheating and oil starvation. The lower portion of the No. 3 piston was destroyed. There was no internal or external evidence with the engine to account for the oil leak. The engine oil system was examined and found to be unremarkable. The CFI stated that a quart of oil was added, for a total 6.7 quarts of oil in the engine, prior to the accident flight.
Probable Cause and Findings
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
A total loss of engine power due to oil starvation for undetermined reasons.
Findings
Not determined (general) - Unknown/Not determined
Aircraft Oil - Not specified
Aircraft Recip eng oil sys - Not specified
Factual Information
On August 25, 2009, at 1215 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 172RG, N6117R, crashed while making a force landing following loss of engine power in Rockaway, New Jersey. The airplane incurred substantial damage and the certified commercial pilot flight instructor (CFI) sustained minor injuries. The student pilot was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The airplane was operated by Air Fleet Training Systems, under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91, as an instructional flight.
The CFI stated, that during pre-flight inspection of the airplane he added one quart of oil to the engine, which had been at 5.7 quarts. He and the student pilot then departed from the Green Lake Airport (4N1), West Milford, New Jersey, and were about an hour into the flight when he noticed the left main wheel was wet. While trouble shooting the situation, he noticed that the engine oil pressure gauge was pointing to the red area, indicating low oil pressure. The CFI took over control of the airplane and retracted the landing gear to improve performance. He turned the airplane directly to their home base at the Essex County Airport (CDW), Caldwell,
New Jersey and contacted the controller at CDW to advise of the situation. Minutes after the communication, the engine came “to a halt with the propeller stopping.” The airplane was about 1 mile east of the Rockaway Towne Center Mall, and the CFI elected to land in an empty section of the mall’s parking lot. The airplane’s nose landing gear made contact with a curb, which separated the gear, and the right wing impacted a tree before coming to a full stop. An examination of the wreckage revealed the fluid on the wheel to be oil leaking from the engine, which covered the bottom and empennage section of the airplane.
The airplane was powered by a Lycoming O-360-F1A6 engine. The engine had a total time of 3,949 hours and 238 hours since its last overhaul, which occurred on September 28, 2006. A teardown examination of the engine was conducted with National Transportation Safety Board oversight. Several components of the #3 and #4 pistons showed signs of overheating and oil starvation, including the rod arms, bearing rods, and crankshaft attaching points. The #3 cylinder piston rod was found separated from the crankshaft with its crankshaft bearing missing and the lower section of the bearing rod destroyed. The #4 rod bearing showed initial indications of failure due to overheating. There was no internal or external evidence with the engine to account for the oil leak. The engine oil system was examined and found to be unremarkable.
History of Flight
Maneuvering Powerplant sys/comp malf/fail
Enroute Loss of engine power (total) (Defining event)
Emergency descent Off-field or emergency landing
Landing Collision with terr/obj (non-CFIT)
Flight instructor Information
Certificate: Commercial; Flight instructor
Age: 42,Male
Airplane Rating(s): Single-engine land; Multi-engine land
Seat Occupied: Left
Other Aircraft Rating(s): None
Restraint Used:
Instrument Rating(s): Airplane
Second Pilot Present: Yes
Instructor Rating(s): Airplane multi-engine; Airplane single-engine; Instrument airplane
Toxicology Performed: No
Medical Certification: Class 2 With waivers/limitations
Last FAA Medical Exam: October 29, 2008
Occupational Pilot: Yes
Last Flight Review or Equivalent: February 10, 2009
Flight Time: 3045 hours (Total, all aircraft), 169 hours (Total, this make and model), 2976 hours (Pilot In Command, all aircraft), 283 hours (Last 90 days, all aircraft), 64 hours (Last 30 days, all aircraft), 7 hours (Last 24 hours, all aircraft)
Student pilot Information
Certificate: Commercial
Age: 39,Female
Airplane Rating(s): Single-engine land
Seat Occupied: Right
Other Aircraft Rating(s): None
Restraint Used:
Instrument Rating(s): Airplane
Second Pilot Present: Yes
Instructor Rating(s): None
Toxicology Performed: No
Medical Certification: Class 2 With waivers/limitations
Last FAA Medical Exam: August 1, 2009
Occupational Pilot: No
Last Flight Review or Equivalent: February 28, 2008
Flight Time: 337 hours (Total, all aircraft), 43 hours (Total, this make and model), 206 hours (Pilot In Command, all aircraft), 11 hours (Last 90 days, all aircraft), 9 hours (Last 30 days, all aircraft)
Aircraft and Owner/Operator Information
Aircraft Make: Cessna
Registration: N6117R
Model/Series: 172RG
Aircraft Category: Airplane
Year of Manufacture: Amateur Built:
Airworthiness Certificate: Normal
Serial Number: 172RG0087
Landing Gear Type:
Tricycle Seats: 4
Date/Type of Last Inspection: March 24, 2009 100 hour Certified
Max Gross Wt.: 2658 lbs
Time Since Last Inspection: 50 Hrs
Engines: 1 Reciprocating
Airframe Total Time: 6146 Hrs at time of accident
Engine Manufacturer: LYCOMING
ELT: C91A installed, activated, did not aid in locating accident
Engine Model/Series: O-360-F1A6
Registered Owner:
Rated Power: 180 Horsepower
Operator:
Operating Certificate(s) Held: None
Meteorological Information and Flight Plan
Conditions at Accident Site: Visual (VMC)
Condition of Light: Day
Observation Facility, Elevation: CDW,173 ft msl
Distance from Accident Site: 10 Nautical Miles
Observation Time: 11:53 Local
Direction from Accident Site: 270°
Lowest Cloud Condition: Clear
Visibility 10 miles
Lowest Ceiling:
Visibility (RVR):
Wind Speed/Gusts: /
Turbulence Type Forecast/Actual: /
Wind Direction:
Turbulence Severity Forecast/Actual: /
Altimeter Setting: 30.14 inches Hg
Temperature/Dew Point: 26°C / 17°C
Precipitation and Obscuration: No Obscuration; No Precipitation
Departure Point: Milford, NJ (4N1)
Type of Flight Plan Filed: None
Destination: Caldwell, NJ (CDW)
Type of Clearance: None
Departure Time: 11:00 Local
Type of Airspace:
Wreckage and Impact Information
Crew Injuries: 1 Minor, 1 None
Aircraft Damage: Substantial
Passenger Injuries:
Aircraft Fire: None
Ground Injuries: N/A
Aircraft Explosion: None
Total Injuries: 1 Minor, 1 None Latitude,
Longitude: 40.875,-74.281112(est)
August 25, 2009: Flight instructor Tom Fischer had been on an instructional flight with a student when he noticed issues with the plane's engine oil pressure.
NTSB Identification: ERA09LA481
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Tuesday, August 25, 2009 in Rockaway, NJ
Probable Cause Approval Date: 12/20/2010
Aircraft: CESSNA 172RG, registration: N6117R
Injuries: 1 Minor,1 Uninjured.
NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
The certificated flight instructor (CFI) and dual/student pilot were practicing maneuvers when the CFI noticed that the left main gear of the airplane was wet. As he looked for the source of the substance he noticed that the airplane’s oil pressure was critically low and immediately headed back to the airplane’s base. On the way, the engine came “to a halt with the propeller stopping” and the CFI elected to land in an empty section of a mall parking lot. The airplane’s nose landing gear contacted a curb and the right wing impacted a tree before coming to a stop. An examination of the wreckage revealed the fluid on the wheel to be oil leaking from the engine, which covered the bottom and empennage section of the airplane. A teardown examination of the engine found the No. 3 and No. 4 pistons with damage consistent with overheating and oil starvation. The lower portion of the No. 3 piston was destroyed. There was no internal or external evidence with the engine to account for the oil leak. The engine oil system was examined and found to be unremarkable. The CFI stated that a quart of oil was added, for a total 6.7 quarts of oil in the engine, prior to the accident flight.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
A total loss of engine power due to oil starvation for undetermined reasons.
