Byline: Stephen C. Fehr Washington Post
A 36-year-old Washington lawyer piloting a plane from National Airport to North Carolina on Thursday was rendered unconscious, apparently by carbon monoxide, but his plane continued on automatic pilot for nearly four hours before crashing into the ocean in the Bahamas, where the pilot was rescued.
Thomas L. Root, who lives in Alexandria, Va., was in critical condition Thursday night at a hospital in Hollywood, Fla. A spokesman for the family said that he apparently was talking, had suffered no fractures and had received a tongue-in-cheek message from his wife, Kathy: "You've really done it now."
Aviation officials said they were stunned that someone could survive a 960-mile trip and 10,000-foot unpowered descent into the ocean. Tension and drama built throughout the day as varying groups of planes and helicopters from three military branches followed Root's single-engine Cessna 210 Centurion down the Atlantic Coast, …
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