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Indians look to build on last year’s success
Just what does a legislator do?
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AUGUST 28, 2026
THE LOCAL VOICE OF YOUR COMMUNITY.
Fatal accident still being investigated
Volume 23, Issue 35
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Dreams of flight
By Susan Canfora Staff Reporter Nearly two weeks after a truck plowed into the front of Mancini’s Brick Oven Pizzaria in Fenwick Island, killing a woman and injuring her 17year-old granddaughter, the teenager remains in Christiana Hospital, where she has undergone multiple surgeries, and the accident is continuing to be investigated, Fenwick Island Police Chief Michael Morrissey told the Coastal Point this week. Morrissey would not release the names of the victims, but the woman killed was identified as a 75-year-old Gettysburg, Pa., woman in obituaries printed in both the Reading Eagle and Franklin County Free Press, both Pennsylvania newspapers. Neither would he release the name of the driver of the truck, whose foot, he said, “slipped off the brake and hit the See ACCIDENT page A3
Drones, Flock cameras helping out BBPD By Susan Canfora Staff Reporter Bethany Beach police are using drones to help with enforcement, including enforcement of the overnight beach curfew, but they have had angry protesters throw items at the drones and also damage Flock cameras, which the Town has used for the past year. Manufactured by Flock Safety — a surveillance and law enforcement technology company based in Atlanta — Flock cameras are automated readers that capture aspects of vehicles from license plates to bumper stickers to dents, to create a database used by police and some businesses. But they are controversial because some people don’t like, or trust, such close tracking of their movements and whereabouts. During the Aug. 21 Bethany Beach Town Council meeting, Councilman See DRONES page A7
Coastal Point • Laura Walter
Ryan Pappas pulls his plane out of its Salisbury (Md.) hangar — a task he takes on regularly as he often commutes to his Philadelphia job via the plane.
Dagsboro man commutes to Philadelphia by air By Laura Walter Staff Reporter On opposite horizons, the moon is still setting and the sun rises over the Delmarva Peninsula as Ryan Pappas pilots his favorite vehicle: a four-seater airplane that seems to represent his life’s mission to fly. He grins at the golden morning landscape: bright green fields, deeper shaded forests, gray asphalt and white houses. Pappas flies eastward over it all, toward the wide blue expanse of Atlantic Ocean and the sky above. “That’s a world a lot of people don’t know, and I wish they did,” he said. Pappas said he loves flying so much that he originally went into corporate finance to help pay for the lessons and flight hours. Now, he loves flying so much that he often commutes by air to his piloting job at Philadelphia International Airport. At 6 a.m., the Dagsboro resident drives to Salisbury Regional Airport, past the passenger terminal, toward a pri-
vately leased storage area. Not only is his plane stored in an enclosed hangar, Pappas keeps it covered in old quilts to keep away the bugs and dust. He’s endured some teasing about it but, “I have the cleanest plane at the airport, so they can say whatever they want.” Most days, Pappas listens to classical music as he unveils his blue-and-white propeller-driven 1982 Mooney M20J aircraft. He checks the tires, wings, battery and gasoline (32 gallons in each wing), which could take him about 1,000 miles if needed. He pokes around the gaps that pull wind into the air-cooled engine. Finally, hooking a slim rod to the front, he rolls the whole 2,200-pound machine out by hand. He calls these morning flights a warmup to his day-job as a commercial airline pilot (yes, carrying passengers). “Flying’s always been my favorite. … It’s a therapeutic way to start the day,” he said. The cockpit in the Mooney isn’t pressurized, so the flight doesn’t begin and end with popping ears. Weather conditions are also calmer at dawn. And he gets to see the entirety of Delaware wake up, as rural fields give way to highways and traffic jams 100 miles away in the city. His typical flying altitude averages 6,000 feet for a smooth experience, and on See FLIGHT page A4