The White House - 1994 Breach

Frank Eugene Corder

Frank Eugene Corder, age 38, spent Sunday evening September 11, 1994 with his brother drinking alcohol and smoking crack. Later that night, he asked him to drop him off at Aldino Airport in Churchville, Maryland. Shortly after midnight on Monday September 12, 1994, he went to the return key rack and stole keys for a Cessna P150. Although he was not a licensed pilot, he had taken several lessons in the summer of 1993.  He set a course toward Washington DC. 

The Cessna was first noticed on radar by Baltimore-Washington International Airport around 1:06 am in the area of York, Pennsylvania. Then he was out of sight until 1:44 am when Washington National Airport spotted him six miles from the White House flying at 2700 feet.  

Over the next three minutes, his plane descended over 1000 feet and turned to the south, passing over the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol.  When the plane had entered the no-fly zone, air traffic controllers notified the appropriate agencies.

Passing over the Mall area, Corder aimed the plane toward the White House, started into a deep descent, and skidded across the White House South Lawn. The plane struck a magnolia tree just west of the South Portico steps, hit the southwest corner of the Executive Mansion’s first floor and crashed at 1:49 AM. Frank Eugene Corder died instantly from multiple massive blunt-force injuries.  

Corder crashed into the White House, September 1994

The Clintons were not in residence at the time because they had been living at Blair House while the White House ventilation system was undergoing renovations.

Within minutes of the crash, the DC Fire Department and paramedics were summoned, the President’s Protective Division was notified, additional Secret Service personnel arrived on scene, a perimeter was established, the Technical Security Division (TSD) and the military's Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team were making sure there were no explosives on the plane.  

An investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the crash was intentional, and not failure of a controlled landing because the plane’s wing flaps were up, the throttle was “full forward” and the plane had exceeded a safe landing speed.  

Armed with that knowledge, the investigators for the Washington D.C. Medical Examiner looked for a trigger and found multiple triggers. Corder’s friends claimed he held no ill will towards President Bill Clinton and that Corder probably did it for the publicity of the stunt. 

Investigators learned that Corder had been terminated from a truck driving job that he had held for over 20 years. He had completed 90 days in a drug rehab in February 1993 and was released to his third wife, Lydia to their home at Keyser’s Motel in Aberdeen, Maryland. 

Then three weeks before his fateful plane crash, Lydia left him. Corder had told several friends that he was going to kill himself in a big way either by flying a plane into the White House or into the dome of the Capitol.  The Washington DC Medical Examiner took all of this into consideration and concluded his death was a suicide.   

Corder wanted to die "in a big way."  He got his wish. His name was added to the list of the many people to breach the White House and its grounds.

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