Former CFI charged with manslaughter

Following a 2022 accident during an instructional flight that seriously injured the allegedly uncertificated instructor and killed the student, a federal grand jury on August 1 indicted Philip Everton McPherson II with one count of involuntary manslaughter and 40 counts of serving as an airman without a certificate, a crime punishable by fines and up to three years of imprisonment. The manslaughter charge carries a sentence ranging from 10 to 16 months.

Court records show McPherson was arrested on August 5 at his residence in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He was released the same day after pleading not guilty to all charges, posting $50,000 bond, and surrendering his passport. A federal public defender was assigned to represent him.  

According to the indictment, McPherson had been involved in two previous aircraft accidents, both while serving as a CFI, in November 2020 and March 2021. Following those accidents, he surrendered his pilot certificate in October 2021—which also rendered his flight instructor certificate invalid—after failing an FAA-ordered reexamination almost exactly one year before the fatal accident flight on September 28, 2022. Student pilot Keith Kozel, 49, died when the Piper PA–28-140 he was flying with McPherson failed to gain altitude after takeoff and eventually crashed about a mile from Allentown Queen City Municipal Airport.

The final NTSB report published June 5 lists the probable cause of the accident as a “partial loss of engine power” on takeoff “for undetermined reasons," noting that the airframe and engine were significantly damaged in the postimpact fire. According to the report, McPherson told investigators that the aircraft “was not performing as expected during the takeoff and initial climb. He took control of the airplane from his student and was able to clear trees off the departure end of the runway, but the airplane would not continue climbing and the engine was 'noticeably weak.' He maneuvered the airplane, maintaining the best angle of climb airspeed (V_X), and was unable to find a suitable landing area.”

The NTSB noted that, based on recorded weather information and an FAA special airworthiness information bulletin applicable to the accident aircraft, “the temperature and dewpoint were in a range of susceptibility for serious icing at glide power and between the range for icing at glide and cruise power and serious icing at cruise power.”

'With gross negligence'

According to the indictment, McPherson had failed “multiple” checkrides for his initial certification before being issued a commercial pilot certificate in December 2019, followed by a flight instructor certificate issued on March 11, 2020. “On both November 18, 2020 and March 6, 2021,” McPherson “flew an aircraft as an instructor with a student pilot when, during the attempted landing at Central Jersey Regional Airport, the aircraft… veered off the runway and was substantially damaged.”

According to the indictment, the FAA received a safety hotline complaint about McPherson following those incidents, and McPherson was ordered to undergo a reexamination on September 29, 2021. McPherson “failed the go-around portion of his reexamination,” the indictment states, and he never requested another reexamination. McPherson placed his pilot certificate on deposit with the FAA on October 7, 2021, in exchange for a temporary certificate that prohibited carrying passengers and “permitted McPherson to only fly by himself, or with an instructor, in order to train and remediate his competence issues.” This temporary certificate expired on November 8, 2021, rendering McPherson unable to fly at all, according to the indictment.

The FAA contacted McPherson multiple times to schedule the reexamination (pursuant to 49 U.S.C. Section 44709), and he was hired with that reexamination still pending by ProFlite Aero LLC, a flight school based in Easton, Pennsylvania, “in or about April 2021,” according to the indictment, where he allegedly continued to provide dual instruction without a valid certificate after failing his reexamination in September until the accident flight that took place one year and one day after his failed reexamination.

Google search results indicate ProFlite Aero is permanently closed. The school’s website displayed only a logo on August 6. A voicemail left at the school’s listed phone number was not immediately returned. Nouman Saleem, described by The Morning Call as the owner of the aircraft, told the newspaper that ProFlite typically operates out of Hackettstown Airport in New Jersey, though the company “sometimes uses Queen City.”

According to FAA records available online, McPherson's flight instructor certificate, which was "valid only when accompanied by" a now-unlisted pilot certificate, expired March 31, 2023. He was issued an aircraft dispatcher certificate on April 25, 2024.

The indictment lists 40 flights that McPherson allegedly conducted with passengers, identified only by their initials in the document, between October 12, 2021, and September 20, 2022. This includes four flights prior to September 28, 2022, with a passenger whose initials match the deceased student, “K.K.,” and 36 with three other individuals. All but three of those flights were conducted from Braden Airpark in Easton, Pennsylvania, according to the indictment. The indictment does not specify which aircraft were flown.

“Defendant MCPHERSON acted without malice but with gross negligence in the commission of a lawful act which might produce death, that is, flying an aircraft, in an unlawful manner or without due caution and circumspection, resulting in the aircraft crashing shortly after takeoff and the death of K.K,” the indictment states. “But for MCPHERSON's intentional and grossly negligent disregard for the safety of K.K., knowing he was not competent to safely fly the aircraft as the pilot in command since he had never mastered the skills necessary to safely operate the aircraft, K.K. would not have died."

According to the NTSB report, McPherson reported 1,350 hours at the time of the September 2022 accident, including 1,200 hours as pilot in command. He was issued a first class medical certificate in December 2017, and was 34 years old at the time of the 2022 accident, according to the NTSB report. He reported having flown 40 hours in the preceding 90 days, according to the report.

The NTSB report lists McPherson’s last reported flight review or equivalent on March 1, 2021, days before the second runway overrun and several months before his failed reexamination in September 2021.