Pilot killed in Bonita Springs plane crash accused of being an 'unapologetic' valor thief

The story of Daniel A. Bernath, 68, killed in the crash of his private plane in Bonita Springs on Monday, has a long and winding legal path through several states including disbarment, accusations of falsely claiming military honors and a previous plane crash.

Bernath, who lived in Fort Myers, walked away from a September 2013 plane crash after he said his plane ran out of fuel in the skies above Oregon.

On Monday Bernath's Vans RV-12 plane crashed in a wooded area outside a gated community in southeast Bonita Springs en route to Immokalee, according to a Lee County Sheriff's Office report.

The RV-12 is a kit airplane that flying enthusiasts can build themselves. This particular plane was a two-seat all-metal side-by-side craft with a large cabin that seats the occupants ahead of the wing spar — a beam which takes the load along the wing, from wing tip to fuselage.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office said an investigation is ongoing.

The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating the crash. An NTSB spokesman said investigators described the plane as highly fragmented after having collided with trees.

"They are going to try to get all the wreckage recovered (Wednesday)," Peter Knudson, the NTSB spokesman, said.

Officially naming Bernath took a few days, the sheriff's office said, because his next-of-kin was out of the country.

Residents in the Tanglewood neighborhood where Bernath lived said they didn't know him, or the woman they said was his wife, very well.

One neighbor, Jeff Balyeat, said he remembered seeing Bernath and the woman dressed in flight suits at times but had little information on the couple.

"They'd close the garage door even before they turned their car engine off," he said.

Information from an NTSB report on Bernath’s 2013 crash said the then 63-year-old pilot was unhurt after he was forced to land his airplane near the Sisters Eagle Airport in Sister’s Oregon.

He told the NTSB that he ran out of fuel while flying his Flight Design CTSW craft from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to Sacramento, California, and crashed in a field about 200 yards southeast of the runway.

A report in the Oregonian newspaper said Bernath, living in Tigard, Oregon, at the time, was the only person in the plane, which had heavy damage to its nose and undercarriage.

Bernath had been issued his sport pilot license in November 2011 and was rated for single-engine planes only.

Also in the Oregonian article, Bernath was described as a Social Security lawyer who had been sentenced to probation and ordered to undergo anger management counseling in October 2010 following an arrest from an altercation with a judge in an elevator in downtown Portland, Oregon.

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The 2013 crash also prompted an investigation by an organization that keeps track of people who falsely claim military awards.

“Daniel A. Bernath was one of the most prolific and unapologetic valor thieves I have ever encountered,” said Master Chief Petty Officer Terence B. Hoey, USN (Ret.), who helps investigate false award claims.

“Bernath was well-known to federal, state and local law enforcement and civil officials from coast to coast,” he said.

Among Bernath’s thefts, Hoey said, was a claim to be an honorary chief petty officer.

“He was not,” Hoey said.

A website that tracks such false claims also listed a number of "stolen valor" incidents linked to Bernath and claimed he "customarily wore awards that he hadn’t earned in public along with self-awarded honorary rank."

Bernath was also disbarred in 2016 in California by order of the California Supreme Court.

He passed the Oregon bar in 1994 but was denied admission after a bar panel ruled that the record “contains overwhelming evidence that (Bernath) does not possess that requisite good moral character and fitness to be a practicing attorney in Oregon.”

The Oregon Supreme Court upheld the panel's denial.

Court records in Chesapeake Circuit Court in Virginia show Bernath pleaded guilty on Friday to a misdemeanor violation of a protective order in a 2016 case.

Connect with this reporter: MichaelBraunNP (Facebook) @MichaelBraunNP (Twitter). Daily News reporter Patrick Riley contributed to this report.