AP 13 Sep 94

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a bizarre and menacing breach of security,
a despondent truck driver crashed a stolen plane on the White House
lawn Monday where it cartwheeled against the mansion two floors
below President Clinton's private quarters.

   The pilot, killed in the twisted wreckage, was Frank Corder, 38.
He was said to have a history of mental illness and alcohol abuse,
and relatives described him as depressed over the breakup of his
marriage and the death of his father.

   Clinton and his family were not in the White House when the
small, single-engine plane hit at 1:49 a.m. They were staying in a
government guest house across the street because of renovation work
at the White House. They returned to their White House residence
Monday.

   No shots were fired as Corder flew near the Washington Monument
and then banked the plane toward the South face of the White House.
Security agents spotted it only at the last second, with just
"enough time to run for cover," Secret Service spokesman Carl Meyer
said. "I don't think there was all that much time, to be quite
honest with you."

   The Washington Post reported in Tuesday's editions that radar at
National Airport had detected the plane minutes before the crash,
according to federal investigators who were trying to determine why
Secret Service officers guarding the White House weren't warned.

   An administration official who has been briefed on the
investigation confirmed that the plane had been detected, and said
to his knowledge the Secret Service was not notified. However, he
told The Associated Press said part of the investigation was to
determine whether the Secret Service was notified, and if not, why
not.

   A Federal Aviation spokeswoman refused to comment on the Post
report.

   The Secret Service refused to speculate on Corder's motive but
said the intrusion "does not appear to be directed toward the
president." No bombs or weapons were found in the wreckage, the
agency said. Meyer said it was possible Corder was trying to land
the plane, not crash it.

   The Secret Service was looking into whether there was any
connection between the president's trip Sunday to Aberdeen Proving
Ground in Maryland and his mention of the nearby Perry Point
Veterans Hospital, where Corder once underwent alcohol
detoxification treatment.

   The Secret Service launched an immediate review of whether
security procedures were followed and how the pilot made his way
unchallenged through prohibited air space. Treasury Secretary Lloyd
Bentsen, whose department oversees the Secret Service, said the
review would look at the adequacy of procedures to protect the
president and first family.

   "We take this incident seriously," Clinton said, "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."

   Slamming into the South Lawn, Corder's plane tumbled across the
White House driveway and sliced through a gnarled magnolia tree
planted by President Andrew Jackson. It came to rest against the
White House at the window of the White House physician's office,
just below the State Dining Room, about 50 yards from the Oval
Office.

   White House security was immediately tightened. Pennsylvania
Avenue, which Clinton has been crossing each day between Blair House
and the White House, was closed for most of the day.

   One witness said the plane was silent as it went over the White
House fence, as if its engines had died or been turned off. It flew
that way for several hundred yards before hitting the lawn.

   It was the worst breach of White House security since 1976 when a
man tried to ram a beat-up pickup truck through the White House
gate. He was stopped by the steel bars. Two years earlier, an Army
private stole a helicopter and landed it on the White House South
Lawn. The soldier was hit by shotgun fire.

   "This has been quite an unusual day here at the White House,"
Hillary Rodham Clinton told a group of guests. Before the wreckage
was carted off, she was seen peering at it from a balcony.

   The plane, a red and white, two-seat Cessna 150 trainer, was
stolen Sunday evening from a small airfield in Harford County near
Baltimore. Witnesses said it flew into Washington from the north,
turned near the Washington Monument and circled back toward the
White House.

   A relative said Corder had never been in trouble with police and
had no strong political beliefs. The Secret Service said he had a
history of mental illness but also said that could include drug and
alcohol problems. Relatives said he was a self-employed trucker.

   However, Corder was sentenced to 18 months probation in March for
a marijuana possession charge in Baltimore and was convicted last
year in Howard County of drunken driving, Leonard Sipes, spokesman
for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said.

   Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark., a close friend of Clinton's, expressed
surprise that a plane could get to the White House, given the
millions of dollars spent on protection. "The security's been paid
for and I just don't know why it did not function. Maybe it
malfunctioned," he said.

   Bentsen said, "We are always concerned when the issue of the
president's safety is involved." He said, "The Secret Service is
studying procedures right now, but we need to get more facts to
fully understand what happened."

   One White House official said 14 seconds elapsed between the time
the plane entered the restricted zone and the crash but the Secret
Service refused to confirm that.

   Sharpshooters are routinely stationed on the White House roof,
and security forces have been reported to be armed with
shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.

   Typically, a plane straying into the restricted air space would
be detected by radar, and law enforcement officials would be
notified. Meyer suggested a plane wouldn't be spotted if it were
flying at treetop, as Corder's was, and the plane's transponder was
turned off. The transponder identifies a plane in response to a
radar signal.

   Radar readings are recorded, and the National Transportation
Safety Board said it was collecting the records to see what signals
had been picked up.

   Treasury Undersecretary Ron Noble, charged with leading the
review of security procedures, said much of the information about
the case could not be divulged.

   Asked directly how such an intrusion could occur, Noble said,
"That's precisely the sort of question I can't answer. ... Just as
if you had a security measure or alarm system in your house, you
wouldn't give me the code for it, I'm not here going to give you at
this point any specific answers until I complete the review."

   Clinton was awakened at 2:35 a.m. and notified of the crash by
chief of staff Leon Panetta.

   Meyer described a scene of frantic uncertainty as the plane
approached, with officers trying to alert their command center by
radio that a plane was coming in.

   "The first thing we had to determine was, what was the situation?
I mean, was this just a plane that ran out of gas, did somebody have
a heart attack? We just didn't have a good sense of what was
involved here. Or, was it a diversion, was something going to come?"

   He said an emergency plan was put into action, notifying fire and
rescue units and summoning bomb experts. Asked if there had been a
security lapse, he said, "That's getting a little ahead of us here."