Well-Known Lawyer Killed In Fiery Plane Crash

A witness who saw the plane crash believes the passengers' last moments must have been truly horrid.

We may have had a week off from the seemingly nonstop doom and gloom, but the legal profession’s summer of sadness — which included several senseless murders, a slew of law firm bombings, a law firm destroyed by a runaway bus, and a fatal courthouse shooting — ended the same way it began, with yet another lawyer’s death.

On Monday afternoon, Michael Apfelbaum, a lawyer who was prominent in the Sunbury, Pennsylvania, community where he practiced, was killed after the small plane he was flying crashed in North Carolina during his return home from a trip to Florida. Apfelbaum was an avid recreational pilot, and both his wife, Christy Apfelbaum, and his father-in-law, Clarence “Mike” Imgrund, were passengers on the doomed Labor Day flight.

Here’s more information on the unfortunate crash from the Daily Item:

Apfelbaum radioed the [Piedmont Triad International Airport]’s tower and indicated there was a problem, according to the airport’s executive director, Kevin Baker.

“What sounds like what happened is the pilot was unable to tell the tower what the problem was, but said they had a problem and within the next few moments is when the crash occurred,” Baker said.

Peter Knudson, of the National Transportation Safety Board, in Washington D.C., said Apfelbaum was talking with air traffic controllers at the Piedmont airport and indicated he was disoriented.

“The controllers were trying to get him to the airport when the crash happened,” Knudson said.

Officials from the NTSB arrived in North Carolina around noon Tuesday to begin their investigation, Knudson said.

According to Beverly Sells, a witness interviewed by WGHP Fox 8 who originally thought Apfelbaum was performing stunts because his plane “was flying rather low, and the wings were kind of going left and right,” she realized the plane was crashing when it began “twirling nose first, down.” Sells believes the flight’s passengers were “probably living in some very horrid last moments of their life.”

Apfelbaum, a graduate of the Penn State Dickinson School of Law, served as solicitor for the City of Sunbury, the Shikellamy School District, and and the Northumberland County Airport Authority. He was a partner in the private practice firm of Apfelbaum, Apfelbaum & Apfelbaum, where he worked with many of his family members. He was co-counsel for the Charles B. Degenstein Foundation and also served on several boards of directors, including those of the Evangelical Community Hospital and Weis Markets. Christy Apfelbaum was the owner of the Center for Permanent Cosmetics in Lewisburg.

We here at Above the Law would like to extend our condolences and sympathies to the Apfelbaums’ family, friends, and colleagues following their tragic deaths.

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Attorney among three killed in North Carolina plane crash [Daily Item]
Michael Apfelbaum remembered by area leaders [WKOK]
Sunbury Attorney, Wife, Father-in-Law Killed in Plane Crash [WNEP]
Witness describes Forsyth County plane crash; 3 victims identified [WGHP Fox 8]
Lawyer, wife and father-in-law die when small plane crashes on Labor Day [ABA Journal]

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