Plane that fatally crashed near Easton was slated to perform ozone research

A research plane was headed to Easton Airport to fuel up ahead of planned ozone research before it plunged into a river Tuesday morning , according to state officials and the foundation that owned the plane.

The twin-engine plane had been set to measure air pollution and the effects of extreme heat on ozone and other pollutants later in the day, state officials said. Instead, the crash into the Tred Avon River both killed aircraft’s pilot, identified by officials as Robert Eugene Merlini, and destroyed the Cessna 402, which was owned by an aeronautical research foundation affiliated with the University of Maryland.

Investigators said Merlini, a 56-year-old Annapolis resident who was the plane’s sole occupant, reported engine trouble just before the crash. Federal Aviation Administration records show that Merlini had been flying as an airline transport pilot, the highest certification offered by the agency, for over 18 years and once also held a flight instructor’s license.

Eric Heidhausen, the University Research Foundation’s president and CEO, said Wednesday that Merlini had previously flown with the organization on a part-time basis but recently had been working as a contract hire, as he had other work. Heidhausen’s not-for-profit foundation, founded in the early 1980s, houses a lab for research and development work that is mainly focused on aviation and extends into ordnance detection and atmospheric sampling systems.

The group has owned the Cessna for about three decades, using it for flight testing and to allow researchers to use their equipment. Investigators said the plane’s 56-year-old pilot had taken off around 9 a.m. Tuesday from Tipton Airport in Anne Arundel County, where the foundation’s flight testing aircraft are stored.

Heidhausen, who became the research and development foundation’s president in January, said Wednesday that the plane’s mission when it departed from Fort Meade was a simple “ferry flight” to Easton Airport to take advantage of its longer runway and fly a longer mission, said Heidhausen, a former Marine fighter pilot who has worked with the foundation for almost 19 years.

Instead, the engine failed for so-far unknown reasons, and the plane went down into the water, according to Maryland State Police, which later processed evidence. After getting calls from witnesses, authorities from throughout the state searched the river near Easton for Merlini, who was eventually located by Anne Arundel County divers. He was declared dead once he was brought back to shore. The National Transportation Safety Board is probing the crash alongside the FAA.

The aircraft’s upended mission scheduled for later in the day was to measure air pollution at different elevations and distances, according to a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of the Environment, which has a partnership with the University of Maryland to perform the research each ozone season.

During the tests, the aircraft would be equipped with atmospheric monitoring equipment to take measurements and help researchers “understand how air pollution forms, moves, and causes air quality problems on the ground,” said Jay Apperson, the spokesperson.

That research partnership has been ongoing since 1995, but Tuesday’s flight mission was “particularly meant to gain a better understanding of the behavior of ozone and other pollutants during extreme heat,” Apperson said.

The department’s secretary, Serena McIlwain, said in a statement that the state agency was “heartbroken” to hear about the crash and that the aircraft “has been used for many years to conduct important scientific research that has helped lead to cleaner air and healthier communities across our state.”

“More importantly, our hearts go out to the pilot, his family, and our colleagues at the University of Maryland for this terrible loss,” she said.

Heidhausen told reporters who gathered Tuesday at the Easton crash site that he is “accountable to the organization for the safe management of flight operations of our airplanes.”

“That’s on me,” he said during the videotaped news conference, where he was joined by state officials. He also added that he was waiting for the NTSB to determine what caused the crash so that “other pilots can learn” from it.

Teams of divers worked with a Maryland Department of Natural Resources icebreaking ship to move the wreckage into shallower water Tuesday before salvors contracted by the foundation’s insurance company began work to remove it. The NTSB said Wednesday afternoon that most of the wreckage had been pulled from the water and that the remains of the destroyed aircraft were set to be taken to a facility in Delaware, where they’ll be documented by investigators.