Mike Connell was Karl Rove’s computer wiz. He was also the key witness in the ongoing 2004 presidential election fraud lawsuit in Ohio. Some believe Connell engineered the fraud under Rove’s direction. Last summer, Rove warned Connell to ignore court orders to testify in the case and threatened him with consequences if he appeared in court. Just before the 2008 vote, an Ohio judge ordered Connell to appear in court and he did. He answered questions for two hours. Now, less than two months later, he is dead. Plane wreck. Unknown cause.
Details:
“Connell’s Piper Saratoga single-engine plane crashed during the evening of December 19, 2008 in Uniontown, Ohio, as it was preparing to land at Akron-Canton airport. There were no other passengers and Connell was killed in the crash. Connell had flown to College Park, Maryland, the previous day. Connell, who lived in Akron with his wife Heather and four children, often flew to Washington for activities related to his IT businesses.” (Wayne Madsden)
Prior to the crash, Connell was told his life was in danger. He requested protection from the Justice department but was denied. Here’s more:
Authored by: annikee on Sunday, January 18 2009 @ 04:02 PM GMT+4
The Bush syndicate had to get in one more murder so Georgie could join the Mile High In Bodies Club. They say you have to have 5,000 confirmed kills to get in. But 10% have to be political enemies.
Authored by: TomBuch on Sunday, January 18 2009 @ 07:22 PM GMT+4
There was some initial reporting of the accident, and then speculation that it may have been politically motivated sabotage. The initial evidence, however, points to pilot error under instrument conditions. NTSB will investigate, and will report any anomalies. The preliminary NTSB report is available at: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20081223X12815&key=1.
The weather listed in the NTSB report shows low ceilings and a very close temperature/dew point spread with potential icing conditions. The pilot was either in clouds, or above an overcast layer and flying exclusively by instruments. His flight had proceeded through the enroute phase unsing the same instruments without incident, but it appears that he was not successful in capturing and holding the localizer signal, which is basically a radio signal that extends out from the runway. His aircraft drifted off the designated course and he attempted to correct, but was unable to do so. That’s a very difficult and busy phase of flight where vertigo can lead a pilot astray. He did request a 360 degree turn to reintercept, but that is not a recommended maneuver so close to an airport. He would have been far better off to execute the published missed approach procedure, or request that air traffic control vector him back on course well outside of the final approach so that he could stabilize his aircraft prior to descent. ATC even offered to do that as a “resequence” but the pilot apparently rejected the suggestion.
The NTSB reports that he held a private pilot certificate with just 510 hours of total time in 2007, when his last medical was conducted. He probably accumulated additional hours, but even so that’s not much time or experience to fly this kind of aircraft in a single pilot operation under instrument conditions, with deteriorating weather and ceilings close to minimums.
The preliminary NTSB report really sounds like a low time pilot simply lost control of his aircraft under challenging conditions. My hunch is that he over estimated his own ability, and when faced with deteriorating conditions was trying to land his aircraft before the ceiling closed in on the airport. It doesn’t sound like there was any funny business or political sabotage. However, as I noted above, NTSB will investigate, and I believe they can be trusted to provide an honest assessment of the incident flight.
For some reason - Christmas - people didn't really pick up on it.
The Ohio coverage was pretty detailed at the time.