Flight of the Intruder

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The fluky flight exposed a second seam in the White House defensive perimeter: warning procedures. In 1974, after a disgruntled U.S. Army private staged an unauthorized helicopter landing on the South Lawn, officials installed a special communications line from Washington's National Airport control tower to the Secret Service operations center. The hot line was supposed to help air-traffic controllers, who monitor local radar, to inform agents at the White House of any planes that were off course or appeared to be on a threatening vector. As it buzzed toward the White House, Corder's plane could be seen clearly on the otherwise quiet radar screens at National. But no one at the airport was watching. Air-traffic controllers on duty at the airport were busy handling other duties. Hence, no warning call. No one took responsibility for the breakdown in procedures last week. The air-traffic controllers union said that Federal Aviation Administration rules require controllers to monitor only scheduled flights after National's curfew. The FAA, which is responsible for air-traffic control at National, refused to explain its policy on late-night radar surveillance and said no new policies or practices had been implemented in the days since the Corder crash. A spokesman for the Secret Service said the FAA policy will be reviewed during the next 90 days.

Less likely to change will be the Secret Service's early assessment of Corder, a man who had recently suffered multiple losses in his life: his business; his father, who died last year; and his marriage. He had talked increasingly of suicide. Corder lived in a beat-up yellow Cadillac in Aberdeen, Maryland, and was writing bad checks at convenience stores for food. At one point, he told friends that he hoped to buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and ride across the country to the West Coast. Another time, Corder said he believed crashing an airplane into the White House would be a novel way to die.

Cindy Jianniney, a maid at Aberdeen's Keyser's Motel who took Corder in during his last week, said he appeared to smoke crack cocaine regularly and seemed "really depressed." On Saturday morning, she said, he complained of missing his wife and seemed to hit bottom. On Sunday night, she recalled, Corder told inhabitants of the motel about "his airplane." He asked Jianniney if she wanted to go up for a ride in what he said was his single- engine Piper. She declined. Shortly thereafter he left for a nearby airport. The next day the motel was overrun by law-enforcement agents.