A KAMIKAZE DIVE INTO THE WHITE HOUSE GROUNDS

  • Share
  • Read Later
While President Clinton and his family slept in Blair House across the street, a Maryland man stole a single engine plane from a small airport near Baltimore, flew into protected federal airspace and crashed into the White House two floors below the President's bedroom window at 1:49 a.m. Several federal agencies are furiously investigating the event, in which the 38-year-old pilot, Frank Eugene Corder, was killed. The Secret Service said this afternoon that Corder, a freight truck driver, had "a prior history of mental illness" and had been distraught over the death of his father and the recent breakup of his marriage. They don't believe he had directed the aircraft at Clinton. The President's reply: "We take this incident seriously because the White House is the people's house, and it's the job of every President who lives here to keep it safe and secure." Corder somehow managed to elude elaborate security precautions, including Stinger missiles that were not fired, before touching