Posted on 11/19/2002 6:10:07 AM PST by Dog Gone
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By the end of the day he was in the spotlight as the focus of a federal investigation into a space program technology theft.
And he also was dead, although authorities had no body to prove it.
The strange story of Filler, a 47-year-old engineer for a NASA contractor in the Clear Lake area, continued to unfold Monday as Waller County deputies and other law enforcement officers searched unsuccessfully for his remains.
"He either fell out or jumped out" of the cockpit of the Cessna 152 he was co-piloting on Sunday afternoon at 9,000 feet above Waller County, Sheriff Randy Smith said.
The sheriff said a daylong search of pastures and ponds and rice fields turned up no body, and as evening approached he wasn't sure how much longer or farther to extend the effort today.
"It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, although I hate to use that expression," he said. "We've got at least 20 square miles to cover."
He said the initial search area was bounded by U.S. 290 Business on the north, Brumlow Road on the south, FM 362 on the east and FM 359 on the west. A state police helicopter and searchers using all-terrain vehicles scouted the countryside to no avail from dawn to dusk on Monday.
Smith reported that federal officials who inspected the Cessna found nothing wrong with its cockpit door-latch mechanism or with the seat belt that Filler apparently had disengaged just before the incident.
Meanwhile, other federal officials were providing a glimpse into their own review of Filler's recent past.
Filler, who celebrated a birthday last week, was under suspicion in connection with the theft of a NASA-owned laptop computer containing possibly sensitive space program data. The laptop disappeared Oct. 25, and officials traced it to Filler's home earlier this month when he made a connection through the computer's modem.
Last Thursday, representatives of NASA, the Johnson Space Center, the U.S. Inspector-General's Office and the Harris County Sheriff's Department talked with him about the theft.
Harris County sheriff's Capt. Robert Van Pelt said Filler told them he bought the computer from an individual who had posted an ad on a bulletin board at a grocery store. He claimed he bought it for $500 in a parking-lot transaction.
When Filler got to his Clear Lake area home and turned on the computer, he saw that it had some non-sensitive NASA software on it, Van Pelt said.
"It piqued his curiosity, but he kept the computer," he said, adding that Filler knew the computer was stolen. "He made that oral admission to them."
The computer was retrieved from Filler's home, and a deputy was completing a report required to charge Filler with theft, Van Pelt said.
Smith said he wasn't sure whether Filler's trouble with the law had any bearing on what happened Sunday: "We're still investigating, as are others."
Filler had worked for United Space Alliance since 1996 in the contractor's integrated test and verification group, which does ground testing for the international space station.
Mike Curie, a spokesman for the firm, described the workplace reaction as "shock" but declined to say more, partly because no confirmation of Filler's death was yet forthcoming
"We're going under the assumption that it is Russ Filler. He was not at work today," Curie said.
Filler was unmarried and lived in the 14600 block of Graywood Grove in the Clear Lake area. He added that Filler reportedly had confided to a friend that he was worried about the theft case.
Smith said the prelude to Sunday's incident was unremarkable.
Filler, who needed more hours in the cockpit to renew his pilot's license, went aloft with instructor Benito Frank Munoz, 23, for a routine outing to get time at the controls and renew flying skills.
Munoz told deputies that Filler took the plane to a relatively high altitude -- about 9,000 feet -- and, once there, turned control of the single-engine plane back over to him. They had been flying about 45 minutes.
Filler asked Munoz to bank the plane in a steep turn and, as Munoz complied, the startled instructor heard a bump and glanced over to "see Filler's feet going out the door," Smith said.
Munoz said Filler had buckled up and donned his radio-intercom headset when they left Hooks, but at the time of the incident apparently had disconnected both. He said nothing beforehand and left no note, Smith said.
Munoz flew back to Hooks to meet with Federal Aviation Administration officials, who were notified immediately.
A woman who answered the phone Monday at Munoz's northwest Houston home said he had no comment regarding the incident.
Pilot who fell linked to NASA theft probe
What did the NASA theft probe weigh?
Maybe it fell out the window first and pulled him along with it.
His real name is Jose Himenez.
“Is that a crash helmet?”
“Oooh, I hooope not.”
He didn't fall... He was taken by aliens.
Or like looking for a lawn-dart in a bog.
Yes, that is certainly a possibility. If they recover a body, though, I imagine what transpired might be similar to the last few minutes of Where Eagles Dare.
You have earned the award for "Top Tinfoiler of the Day"!
Here's your reward:
I understand the 152 uses the Lycoming instead of the old workhorse Continental and claims to squeeze a few more knots out . . . but never having flown one I can't say.
As I said, my flight instructor used to routinely open the door in flight and hang his leg out. He'd brace his foot on the strut. The slipstream did tend to hold the door closed, but not in any overpowering way. My dad used to open the window on his 1967 210 Centurion in flight - noisy, but it didn't rip the window off the airplane or anything. I think there are "dead zones" of air along the sides of the fuselage, particularly given the bulky engine cowling right ahead of the door.
All that said, this whole episode has my antennae gently vibrating. It seems very odd that the instructor-pilot didn't immediately radio the tower that his passenger had left the aircraft and give at least general bearings and landmarks. I flew with a flying club out of a small field near Atlanta, and we all had a very good relationship with the ATC guys. I would have been on the horn as quick as I could grab the mike. Hooks Field has a tower: David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport Perhaps since they were at 9,000 feet they had climbed well away from the field (takes a long, long time to get a 150 up that high), but in that case I would have called Houston approach or SOMEBODY.
Not that I know of. They are like a backpack, and you're cinched up so tight, you're a soprano who can barely walk.
Short answer: Yes. Emergency bailout chutes can be quite small - smaller than a life vest. But that's still hard to conceal under clothing (similar chutes are used in movies, but there the camera is trying not to reveal the presence of the chute).
Could he have stolen one of those, too? Maybe. But I would put no more than a small covering bet on that. My money would be riding on a straight suicide.
Unless and until they find the body, that latter possibility has to be considered.
Lawn darts! Don't you remember that the U.S. Congress--in an astounding display of focusing on real national issues--banned them a number of years back?
It will be slow and painful. They will make you sit through six straight management reviews in Bldg 1.
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