The Washington attorney who ditched his plane in the Atlantic Ocean last summer was ordered Friday to show why he shouldn't be disbarred from practicing before the Federal Communications Commission. In the interim, Thomas L. Root has been suspended from practicing law before the commission, the FCC said. The commission said it had acted because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia entered an order April 12 disbarring Root by consent. FCC rules require that attorneys practicing before it not be under any disbarment order. Telephone calls to Root's office Friday went unanswered. In March, Root was indicted on 33 counts of fraud and other crimes involving radio stations he was representing before the FCC. The federal indictment accused Root of defrauding the government and five clients in FCC proceedings on permits to construct FM radio stations throughout the United States. Root gained notoriety last July when his single-engine plane ran out of fuel and plunged into the Atlantic off the Bahamas following a six-hour, 800-mile flight that began near Washington. He told authorities that he had been unconscious for most of the odyssey, but Navy fighter pilots flying alongside the plane reported seeing him move in the cockpit. When he was taken to a Florida hospital, Root was found to have suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Less than a week after the crash, Sonrise Management Services of Columbus, Ga., sued Root for $584,000, claiming he failed to perform work and double-billed a client. Root filed for bankruptcy court protection from creditors in October 1989, claiming he had $1.64 million in liabilities. The federal indictment charged Root with 20 counts of wire and mail fraud, seven counts of filing false legal documents with the FCC, four counts of using counterfeit and altered federal documents, and one count each of forgery and obstruction of the grand jury's investigation.
