Pilot Was Shot in Stomach; FBI Enters the Bizarre Case : Financial Problems Reported

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. —  In a bizarre development today, police announced that a pilot who miraculously survived when his plane crashed in the Atlantic after he flew unconscious for nearly 1,000 miles had been shot through the stomach, possibly in a suicide attempt or an accident during the flight.

Officials at Hollywood Memorial Hospital, where Washington lawyer Thomas Root was being treated after his rescue in the Bahamas on Thursday, notified police that surgeons had found a gunshot wound during exploratory surgery, Hollywood Police Chief Richard Witt said.

Police said the case had been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Gun Enthusiast

Andrew Alston, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said Root was known to be a gun enthusiast and may have violated federal aviation rules on weapons possession.

Since the crash, the NTSB has been swamped with calls from government agencies and individuals with allegations that Root had financial problems, Alston told reporters. But he declined to elaborate.

It was a strange twist in a story of survival that rescue authorities had dubbed “the miracle flight.” Root’s odyssey began at Washington’s National Airport and ended six hours later when he was rescued after his single-engine Cessna 210 ran out of fuel and hit the water 14 miles east of the island of Eleuthera.

Authorities had originally speculated that Root, who issued a distress call during what was supposed to be a short hop to Rocky Mount, N.C., blacked out during the flight because of a heart attack or carbon monoxide poisoning.

‘Getting More Bizarre’

“This is getting more bizarre. It’s weird,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Fred Farrar said.

With the latest revelations, investigators now believe that Root’s survival was even more miraculous than previously thought.

Root, a 36-year-old flying enthusiast, was listed in guarded but stable condition at Hollywood Memorial Hospital after two hours of surgery Thursday.

Police suspect that Root’s gunshot wound may have been “self-inflicted” either in an attempt to kill himself or in an accidental firing of the weapon during the flight, Witt told Reuters. “I think this is the first hypothesis that you’d have to draw,” he said.

He said a powder burn found on Root’s stomach was typical of such shootings at close range, but he did not rule out the possibility that Root may have been shot by someone else before the flight began.

Bullet Wound Discovered

During surgery, doctors discovered that a small-caliber bullet had been fired into his abdomen, passed through his colon, exited his body and then passed through his left arm, Witt said. Investigators have not recovered the bullet or the gun because the plane sank.

Jack Mayer, a friend and fellow lawyer in Root’s office in Washington told Reuters that Root was not depressed and that if he had wanted to kill himself he would not have shot himself in the stomach.

Root was under heavy sedation and police said they had been unable to question him about the incident.