Attorney in Odd Air Crash Is Bankrupt

WASHINGTON — Thomas Root, whose communications law business attracted public scrutiny after his mysterious plane crash into the Atlantic, said Monday that his law firm has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Root, who has acknowledged collecting $1.64 million in fees for representing FM radio station applicants before the Federal Communications Commission in the last two years, said his monetary problems stemmed from non-payment from an “entity” he would not name.

He refused to say if the entity was Sonrise Management Services, a Columbus, Ga., company that has sued Root over his legal services for FM station investment groups that Sonrise organized.

Root said his firm, Thomas L. Root, P.C., filed Aug. 30 in federal bankruptcy court in the District of Columbia.

Root gained fame when his single-engine plane, apparently on auto-pilot after taking off from Washington, flew for six hours before crashing near the Bahamas.

At a hospital where Root was taken after his rescue, doctors discovered that the Alexandria, Va., attorney had been shot in the abdomen. Root says he passed out at the controls of the aircraft and can’t remember how he was shot.

Days after the crash, Sonrise filed a $584,000 lawsuit against Root, alleging that he had failed to perform work and double-billed a client.