A New Jersey flight instructor who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection to a fatal plane crash near Allentown now says his negligence did not contribute to the crash.
Philip Everton McPherson was giving a flight lesson to Easton resident Keith Kozel in September 2022 when the plane crashed in a residential backyard in Salisbury Township, about a mile from Queen City Airport in Allentown.
McPherson says he was pressured into taking the plea deal in connection with the crash, according to a motion to withdraw his plea, filed Friday by his new attorney Joseph D. Mancano of Wayne. The motion says McPherson’s previous attorney, Angelo L. Cameron of Philadelphia, failed to pursue a defense that the plane crashed due to engine failure, not pilot error.
According to the motion, another pilot abandoned a takeoff of the same plane four days earlier because it failed to accelerate properly.
Prosecutors have said McPherson should have known better than to take off in a plane with a sputtering engine and said he flew away from an open field that would have offered him a better opportunity for an emergency landing.
A spokeswoman from the U.S. Attorney’s office didn’t comment Tuesday on McPherson’s motion.
McPherson also wants to withdraw his pleas to charges that he gave more than 40 flight lessons without proper certification.
The motion says McPherson knew he wasn’t allowed to fly with passengers but didn’t know he was barred from giving flight lessons. The motion says his previous attorney wasn’t available to discuss the plea deal with him and he only had a brief recess during the plea hearing to review the document.
Attorney Cameron didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.
McPherson faces a maximum of 153 years in prison, although it’s unclear what his guideline sentencing recommendation will be. McPherson pleaded guilty in October to 43 of the 44 charges he faced.
McPherson, of Haddon Township, Camden County, crashed planes twice and lost his pilot certification in the nine months leading up to the crash that killed Kozel, 49.
McPherson failed his pilot certification examination twice, finally passing the third time in December 2019, court records say. Then he crashed planes in November 2020 and March 2021 at Central Jersey Regional Airport, court records say.
After the crashes, McPherson was required to take a flight re-certification test, records say. The examiner had to take control of the plane to prevent it from crashing Sept. 29, 2021, records say.
McPherson surrendered his certificate and never bothered to re-test, records say. After that, he continued to provide more than 40 flight lessons to student pilots. All of them were at Braden Airpark in Forks Township, except for three at Queen City Airport in Allentown, records say.
McPherson previously pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, obstruction of an administrative proceeding, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, criminal conspiracy and serving as an airman without a certificate.
McPherson’s then-employer fired him after his second crash, and he took a job in April 2021 as a flight instructor for Proflight Aero flight school in Bethlehem Township, records say.
The owner of a Proflight Aero flight school, Nouman Saleem of Palmer Township, admitted in May he allowed McPherson to keep teaching student pilots even though he was unlicensed and a safety risk.
Saleem pleaded guilty to obstruction of an administrative proceeding, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and criminal conspiracy. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced in March.