Fall from plane a mystery
Posted on 11/27/2002 4:35:56 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Fall from plane a mystery
Man feared losing job, faced legal problems before possible suicide
11/27/2002
HOUSTON - As a boy, Russell Filler's love of space prompted him to build a mock-up of a space station in the basement of his Fort Wayne, Ind., home.
While a diseased kidney prevented him from becoming an astronaut, Mr. Filler, 47, had a long and prosperous career in the aerospace industry. He worked the last six years for the United Space Alliance's integrated test and verification group, which does ground testing for the international space station.
He is at the center of an investigation of a Nov. 17 incident in the skies over Waller County, 45 miles northwest of Houston. Mr. Filler got into a single-engine plane with a flight instructor, ostensibly to update his pilot's license. In mid-flight, he unclasped his seat belt, opened the door and apparently jumped from the plane.
Authorities, who are awaiting final autopsy results, are still not calling Mr. Filler's death a suicide, but they say all things indicate he jumped out of the plane.
The life and career Mr. Filler had carefully built unraveled over the last few months. Friends said he was about to be laid off, and he was the only suspect in the theft of a laptop from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"He was very distraught. He was crying," Mr. Filler's friend of 24 years, David Lamar, said about a telephone call he received two days before the incident. "He said he could hurt himself."
'He loved his work'
Friends and family remember Mr. Filler as outgoing and a "people person" who loved backpacking, boating and camping.
"He loved his work," the Rev. M. Rick Carpenter said during Mr. Filler's memorial service on Monday at University Baptist Church, where he was a member. "He loved what he was doing with his life."
He was respected in the aerospace community, serving as chairman of the local chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1998-99.
Mr. Lamar said Mr. Filler was admired for his dedication to the industry and mentoring young engineers and college students.
Mr. Filler received a diagnosis of clinical depression in September, shortly after getting a notice he would be laid off from his job as a senior engineer with United Space Alliance, a NASA contractor, said Mr. Lamar, an engineer at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Mr. Filler, who was taking medication, was looking for another job without much success.
Mike Curie, a spokesman for the firm, said he could not comment on whether Mr. Filler was going to be laid off but said no companywide layoffs are planned soon.
On Oct. 27, employees at Johnson Space Center noticed a laptop missing from a conference room. On Nov. 2, a tracking device within the computer traced it to Mr. Filler's home.
Less than two weeks later, on Nov. 14, investigators with the Harris County Sheriff's Department, the U.S. Inspector General's Office and Johnson Space Center security interviewed Mr. Filler.
He told them he bought the laptop for $500 in a parking lot from someone who had posted an ad on a grocery store bulletin board, said Harris County Sheriff's Capt. Robert Van Pelt.
Mr. Filler told authorities he knew the computer was stolen but said that "it was too good of a deal," Capt. Van Pelt said.
"He never had a name [of the man] or a thorough description," he said.
Although Mr. Filler didn't work in the building where the laptop was stolen, he had access to it, Capt. Van Pelt said.
"I'm convinced he bought a hot computer," Mr. Lamar said. "Why would he lose his perspective, face the humiliation of being ... [arrested]? There are a lot of unanswered questions. I think that whoever really did it is alive and kicking, and Russ is not here anymore."
Theft charges
Sheriff's Department investigators were preparing to present the case to the Harris County District Attorney's office, recommending that Mr. Filler be charged with felony theft.
But before authorities could act, Mr. Filler got into the plane, and after it climbed to 9,000 feet, he apparently jumped to his death, Waller County Sheriff's Department Lt. John Kremmer said.
"There's no indication otherwise at this point," he said. "The FAA inspected the aircraft and found it to be in good working order. The flight instructor was just an individual that was at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Many of Mr. Filler's friends don't think he took the computer.
"We will never know conclusively whether or not he stole that computer. But there's no other evidence to lead to any other suspects," Capt. Van Pelt said.
Mr. Lamar said the sadness and sense of loss related to Mr. Filler's death had not hit him yet.
"The space program is a big thing. Russ was a good information source," said Mr. Lamar, who now regrets that he didn't call someone when Mr. Filler threatened to hurt himself. "There will come a time next week, next month, and I'll have a question, and I'll say that's the kind of thing Russ knows about. He won't be there to answer my question. Russ should be remembered for being dedicated to the human exploration of the solar system."
"And the impact he made on the Earth's Crust."
Hmmm. Interesting. And thanks, AP, for letting the world in on it.
Suicide. A permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Wow. Excellent, a keeper.
Someone close to me committed suicide in May 2001. I had no idea the devastation, the psychological, emotional, and legal disaster this act leaves the "victim's" survivors to cope with. Prayers to this gentleman's family and friends.
(steely)
Well, no $hit.
I was in Houston in that time frame and the local news channels reported that the laptop has an internetbased tracking device if you dial in with the laptop to our ISP. It has spware to say to NASA Hello this is where I am at with your modem setings. He took it and then hooked it up to the internet. Ouch WR
Yes. They found him a couple or three days after he bailed.....
I got yours and the other screen names from your comment on prior article posted on this story. I've removed your name from that list....
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