The Nation - News from Sept. 12, 1989

Thomas Root, whose communications law business attracted scrutiny after his mysterious plane crash, said that his law firm, Thomas L. Root, P.C., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Aug. 30 in federal bankruptcy court in the District of Columbia. Root, who has acknowledged collecting $1.64 million in fees for representing FM radio station applicants before the Federal Communications Commission in the last two years, said his monetary problems stemmed from non-payment from an “entity” he would not name. Root’s single-engine plane, apparently on auto-pilot after taking off from Washington, flew for six hours before crashing near the Bahamas in July. Doctors later discovered that the Alexandria, Va., attorney had been shot in the abdomen. Root says he passed out in the aircraft and can not remember how he was shot.