WASHINGTON — The two men who were in a small plane that crashed Sunday in woods a few hundred yards from Tipton Airport near Fort Meade have been identified as Jeffry P. Barnett, 57, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, and Thomas L. Cline, 82, of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Barnett, who was the pilot, is the chief of transportation and community programs for Charles County.
Barnett has been the transportation chief for six years, according to the county.
Charles County released a statement that says Barnett “is a valuable and dedicated employee with the county and we wish him a speedy recovery.”
Cline is a renowned scientist who worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center. His work included experiments related to interplanetary and solar-flare particles. After his retirement from NASA, he was an “emeritus ” employee.
The single-engine plane crashed just after takeoff. Anne Arundel County Fire Department spokesman Capt. Michael Pfaltzgraff said that department received a report shortly before 2 p.m. about the plane.
Pfaltzgraff said it took the emergency workers about 50 minutes to free the men from the plane. The two were flown to Baltimore’s Shock Trauma Center.
Cline was in critical condition on Monday, and Barnett in fair condition.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the aircraft was a Grumman American AA-1, and that it went down a half-mile from the runway after departure.
Federal investigators will be back on the scene Monday, trying to determine the cause of the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board is not coming to the crash site initially, “but will analyze information provided by FAA investigators,” says Eric Weiss, a spokesman with the NTSB.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
