New Page 2

GIOVANNI "JOEY" ALETRIZ'S ATTORNEY PETER KAROLY DIES IN PLANE CRASH

Peter Karoly, right, with Joey's mom and dad

* * *

ARTICLES:

2/3/07: 'You just couldn't ask for two nicer, kinder people'

2/4/07: Investigators Piece Together Plane Crash

2/4/07: Peter Karoly, wife die in crash

2/4/07: Lehigh Valley lawyer Peter Karoly killed when his plane crashes while trying to land

2/4/07: Crash victim's brother questions lack of lights

2/4/07: Prominent Pa. attorney killed in New Bedford plane crash

'You just couldn't ask for two nicer, kinder people'

Sunday, February 04, 2007
By Precious Petty

Peter J. Karoly was a clean-cut, suit-and-tie kind of guy, said brother and fellow Allentown attorney John P. Karoly Jr.

But one day a few years ago, he ditched his courtroom togs for an Allentown Ambassadors' uniform and bid his team and its fans farewell by stepping up to the plate.

"The crowd gave him a standing ovation," John Karoly said.

The sight of his younger sibling facing down 90 mph pitches is something John Karoly said will never fade from his memory.

Peter Karoly died Friday night in a Massachusetts plane crash that also killed his wife, Lauren Angstadt, and pilot Mike Milot of Germansville, Pa., John Karoly said.

Karoly, 53, and Angstadt, 51, of Bethlehem, were en route to New Bedford Regional Airport at 7:45 p.m. when their single-engine turboprop Socata crashed in a wooded area as it approached the darkened runway in foggy weather.

The brothers talked on the phone an hour earlier and nothing seemed amiss, John Karoly said.

He described Peter, best known locally for his ownership of the defunct Ambassadors and his work as a medical malpractice and personal injury lawyer, as a hard-working, affable man with an entrepreneurial appetite.

John Karoly said his brother's effort to bring baseball to Allentown stemmed from a love of the sport and a need to share it with everyday folks who can't afford major league ticket prices.

The Allentown native also was a medical technology innovator who owned Physicians Imaging Centers in South Carolina and served as chief executive officer for eRAD Image Medical, also in South Carolina.

"He had a real penchant for business and numbers," John Karoly said.

Peter Karoly worked as a certified public accountant before studying law at Pepperdine University in California.

John Karoly said he hopes to keep his brother's law firm, Peter J. Karoly & Associates, open by merging it with his own.

Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce President T. Anthony Iannelli said Peter Karoly made the world a more interesting place.

"He never stood still," explained Iannelli, who worked with him in an effort to make the Ambassadors a success.

Peter Karoly was always moving toward a goal and wouldn't quit until it had been met or proven impossible, he said.

"If he believed in something, he would fight for it. I think that's why he was a very good trial lawyer," Iannelli said.

John Karoly described his brother, the third of six children, and Angstadt as a perfect match. They did everything -- golfing, playing tennis, art collecting, supporting charitable causes, dining out -- together.

"They both liked the same things, and they both grew to like the same things," he said of the couple, who had no children.

Siobhan "Sam" Bennett said the two were rooting for Allentown's success and showed it by investing their time and money in the struggling city.

Karoly's wife, an endodontist, ran a flourishing dental practice in Allentown. Bennett, who shared a professional and personal relationship with the couple, was Angstadt's patient.

"You just couldn't ask for two nicer, kinder people who had all the success and the resources in the world, and what did they do with it? They reinvested it in their community. That is very rare," said Bennett, the Allentown Democratic Committee chairwoman.

Peter Karoly was never too busy to support a charitable cause or talk to a group of students at Dieruff High School in Allentown, Bennett said.

The couple, married for 20-plus years, set an example for others in the Lehigh Valley, she said. "This is a very serious loss for the community."

Reporter Precious Petty can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at ppetty@express-times.com.

KBZ-TV (WBZ)

Investigators Piece Together Plane Crash

February 4, 2007

Details Investigators Eye Approach Lights That Were Not On (WBZ) NEW BEDFORD, Mass. Three people were killed after their plane crashed in a wooded area in New Bedford Friday night.

Peter J. Karoly, 53, of Bethlehem and his wife, Dr. Lauren Angstadt, 54, died along with their pilot, according to Karoly's brother, lawyer John Karoly of Allentown, Pennsylvania. John Karolyn identified the pilot as Michael Milot of Germansville, Pennsylvania, and said that Milot worked full-time for his brother's firm.

Peter Karoly was a prominent plaintiff lawyer and owner of a now-defunct minor league baseball team, the Allentown Ambassadors.

Fire officials say they located the aircraft about three-quarters of a mile into the woods off Ventura Drive on the border of New Bedford and Dartmouth.

The airport tower notified the fire department around 7:45 that the plane fell off radar.

The plane is said to have missed its first attempt to make and instrument-only landing at New Bedford Regional Airport. FAA spokesman Jim Peters said the plan crashed when it made a second attempt for the runway.

According to Karolyn, the plane's problems were due to insufficient runway lighting. "The plane could not find the runway on its heading because there were no lights," he said.

But Peters said the runway was safe. He said the additional lights in the center of the runway and about 40 feet off both edges have been off since August because they were blocked by thick vegetation. The lights that were turned off are apparently used by pilots who are performing instrument only landings.

Peters added "it could very well be" that NTSB investigators say the lack of lights played a role in the crash. "That's going to be up to an NTSB investigation to make that call," he said.

Regarding the lights, local pilot Michael Josefek began a petition to have the lights turned back on. The petition read, in part: "This creates a dangerous condition and makes New Bedford Airport less than desirable to land at under extreme weather conditions."

New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang said: "On January 5th I asked the FAA to turn those lights back on and they indicated they would fast track a program so we could get those on as soon as possible."

Work to cut away some of the brush is scheduled to begin this Tuesday, but there is no indication as of yet that these lights were a direct cause of the crash.

Investigators said the plane made a steep vertical drop but did not explode as some reports indicated. The NTSB could not say exactly what went wrong though.

The plane left Lehigh Valley around 2 p.m. Friday and flew into Boston and departed from Logan Airport shortly after 7:15 p.m. for New Bedford, where the three planned to have dinner with a business associate.

Weather conditions were poor at the time of the crash. The NTSB said visibility was within the legal limit for flying at the time of the crash.

New Bedford Regional Airport is located nearby Interstate 195 and Route 140 in the heart of the SouthCoast region of Southern Massachusetts.

Frequently scheduled passenger service is provided to the Islands by Cape Air and scheduled cargo service to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard is offered daily by Boston-Maine Airways.

New Bedford Regional Airport is a towered airport offering two 5000 foot runways and a precision instrument landing system.

Peter Karoly, wife die in crash

February 04, 2007
By Precious Petty

Federal authorities investigating plane wreck in Massachusetts that also killed pilot.

Federal authorities are investigating whether insufficient runway lighting contributed to Friday night's plane crash in Massachusetts that killed prominent Allentown attorney Peter J. Karoly, wife Lauren Angstadt and their pilot.

No one survived the 7:45 p.m. crash into a wooded area about 1.5 miles west of New Bedford Regional Airport near the border of New Bedford and Dartmouth.

Karoly's elder brother John P. Karoly Jr. confirmed the deaths Saturday and identified the third victim as Mike Milot of Germansville, Pa. Peter Karoly has a pilot's license, but John Karoly said Milot, also licensed, was flying that night.

''Peter always traveled with a professional corporate pilot as an extra precaution,'' he said. Milot has had a flight instructor certificate since January 2006, according to federal records.

''We'll take a look at man, machine and environment,'' said Robert J. Gretz, senior investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board's northeast regional office. ''The lights were out of service, but the approach was still legal.''

It could take up to a year for the NTSB to make a ruling on the crash, Gretz said.

Friday's foggy, rainy weather and human error also might have played a role. Authorities said the single-engine turboprop Socata TBM-700 owned by Peter Karoly's PK Leasing LLC was making an instrument-only landing, a technique commonly used in bad weather.

The plane missed its first approach to the runway, and the pilot radioed a ''go-around,'' signaling that he intended to circle the airport for a second attempt, Gretz said. But the plane never made it, bearing nearly straight down, at an 80-degree angle, and crashing into the ground. Both wings and the cockpit separated from the fuselage upon impact.

Saul Friedman, who owns a Gold's Gym near the airport, said he heard "a crackling noise" in the woods behind his gym around the time of the crash. He walked into the woods but didn't find anything.

Lights marking the runway's center line, as well its left and right sides, were illuminated at the time of the crash, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said.

But two other sets of lights that aid in instrument landings were off, having been taken out of service in August because a thick growth of weeds and brush had rendered them useless, he explained.

Earlier this month, the city of New Bedford asked the FAA to turn the lights back on and had obtained an emergency permit from the local conservation commission to do so because the runway is on protected wetlands, Peters said. But the lights remained off because the work clearing the vegetation hasn't been completed.

The trio was meeting with a business associate in the New Bedford area for dinner, John Karoly said. They'd stopped in Boston earlier that day where Angstadt, an endodontist, received planned medical treatment for a minor malady, he said.

The plane had arrived at Logan International Airport in Boston about 3 p.m. Friday after flying in from Lehigh Valley International Airport, where Peter Karoly leased hangar space for his aircraft, his brother said.

Reporter Precious Petty can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at ppetty@express-times.com.

The Boston Globe and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Lehigh Valley lawyer Peter Karoly killed when his plane crashes while trying to land

His wife, Lauren Angstadt, and pilot Michael Milot of Germansville also died.

February 4, 2007
By Wendy Solomon and Sam Kennedy

Prominent Lehigh Valley lawyer and businessman Peter J. Karoly was killed Friday with his wife and a pilot in a plane crash south of Boston that his brother blames on inadequate airport lighting.

Karoly, 53, was the owner of the Allentown Ambassadors, a now-defunct minor league baseball team, and one of the region's leading medical malpractice lawyers. His wife, Dr. Lauren Angstadt, 54, was an Allentown dentist. The pilot with them was Michael Milot, 23, of Germansville, said Karoly's brother, lawyer John Karoly of South Whitehall Township.

Mobile News | Subscribe Online | Order Reprints Related PhotosPhotos: Karoly Tragedy Photos related to the plane crash that took the lives of Peter Karoly, his wife Lauren Angstadt and Michael Milot. Lehigh Valley Local Links

Karoly's plane, a single-engine turboprop Socata TBM-700, crashed in thick fog and rain at 7:45 p.m. on its second attempt to land at New Bedford Regional Airport, about 50 miles south of Boston, according to aviation officials.

Flying conditions were poor. Dense, low-lying clouds limited visibility.

Lights that normally assist pilots in such conditions had been taken out of service by the Federal Aviation Administration in August because ''they were obscured by vegetation,'' said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the FAA's New England office.

The reason the instrument landing system lights, which extend from the end of the runway, had not been turned back on is unclear, but a bureaucratic hurdle might have been a factor. Because the lights are in protected wetlands, a permit was required before any vegetation could be removed, Peters said.

''Nothing will bring back my brother,'' John Karoly said Saturday at his home. ''To have them [the lights] turned off because somebody didn't get a permit to cut back vegetation is a totally unacceptable explanation.''

Last month, about a dozen pilots concerned about their safety petitioned the New Bedford mayor about the lights.

''We agreed we would fast-track the devegetation plan,'' Mayor Scott W. Lang recalled Saturday.

After emergency permits were obtained, brush around the lights was scheduled to be cleared on Tuesday.

The FAA's Peters said the lights, while helpful, are not needed for an instrument landing — that is, when the pilot uses his cockpit readings to gauge his distance from the runway.

''They are an aid to the system ensuring landing on the center line to touch down. The lights are an addition; they are not required,'' Peters said.

Peter Karoly and Milot would probably have known the instrument landing system lights were not working because that kind of information is provided to pilots when they file a flight plan.

Karoly and his wife of 22 years lived in Bethlehem. They had flown to Boston Friday afternoon for a medical appointment. She saw a specialist for a minor problem with her vocal chords, John Karoly said.

Afterward, at 7:17 p.m., they departed from Boston's Logan International Airport in Peter Karoly's corporate plane to fly to New Bedford to meet a business associate for dinner, said Dr. John Shane, a Lehigh Valley forensic pathologist who often worked with Karoly.

It has not yet been determined who was flying the plane. Although Karoly holds a private pilot license with an instrument rating, he was with Milot, a professional pilot. Both men were seated in the front of the cockpit, according to accident investigators.

''He was very cautious. He always took a professional pilot with him,'' John Karoly said.

After missing its first approach to the runway, the plane circled the airport for a second attempt, the FAA's Peters said. The aircraft then crashed about three miles west of the New Bedford airport in a thickly wooded area.

A witness quoted in the Boston Globe said, ''I heard him before I could see him. He was way too low…he couldn't have been more than 400 feet off the ground.''

Another witness said he heard ''a crackling noise'' in the woods.

Crash victim's brother questions lack of lights

February 4, 2007
By Justin M. Norton

DARTMOUTH -- The brother of a prominent Pennsylvania attorney who was among three killed in a plane crash near the New Bedford Regional Airport questioned yesterday whether insufficient runway lighting contributed to the accident.

Peter J. Karoly, 53, of Bethlehem and his wife, Dr. Lauren Angstadt, 54, died Friday night along with their pilot of the single-engine plane, according to Karoly's brother, lawyer John Karoly Jr. of Allentown, Pa.

Peter Karoly was a lawyer in Allentown who also was known as an owner of the Allentown Ambassadors, a now-defunct minor-league baseball team. Angstadt was an Allentown endodontist -- a specialist in root-canal treatment. The couple had no children.

John Karoly identified the pilot as Michael Milot of Germansville, Pa., and said that Milot worked full-time for his brother's firm.

The plane, a six-seat Socata TBM-700, missed its first approach while trying to make an instruments-only landing in the foggy weather.

It crashed on the second approach, said Jim Peters, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. Robert J. Gretz, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said the plane hit the ground nose-first. Rescuers couldn't comb the wreckage or recover the victims' bodies until yesterday morning because of weather and safety concerns. Debris was scattered no more than 60 feet from the crash site.

Sets of runway lights used by pilots relying on their instruments to land were off at the time of the crash, and John Karoly said that was a major factor in the accident.

Earlier this month, the city of New Bedford asked the FAA to turn the lights back on, and had obtained an emergency permit from the local conservation commission to do so because the runway is on protected wetlands, Peters said.

But the lights remained off Friday because the work clearing the vegetation hadn't been completed, Peters said.

"The plane could not find the runway on its heading because there were no lights," John Karoly said.

But Peters said the runway was safe and that lights that line the edges of the runway, as well as lights that run down the center, were on.

He said the additional lights, located in the center of the runway and about 40 feet off both edges, have been off since August because they were blocked by thick vegetation. Pilots were notified about the situation in a "notice to airmen," he said.

Peters said the lights that were off are intended as "an additional aid."

Prominent Pa. attorney killed in New Bedford plane crash

February 4, 2007

Deadly plane crash update

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) -- Investigators continue searching for the cause of a plane crash that killed three people on the New Bedford/Dartmouth line.

Fifty-three-year-old Peter Karoly of Bethlehem was on the plane with his wife and an employee of his firm.

Karoly's brother John-who confirmed his brother's death- said the plane crashed Friday night near New Bedford Regional Airport because of insufficient lighting on the runway.

The F-A-A says lights lining the edges and center of the runway were on, though lights away from the edges were off because of thick vegetation.

Those lights are intended to help pilots relying on instruments to land.

But F-A-A spokesman Jim Peters said pilots can land without them and the runway was safe.