Federal investigators were seeking to determine yesterday the cause of an airplane crash that killed a Florida man Saturday in Anne Arundel County.

Rescue divers from Anne Arundel, Kent and Calvert counties retrieved the body of William Gardner Knight, 56, of Delray Beach about 2 a.m. yesterday from the cockpit of his experimental two-seater Burgess Model RV-6, said Officer Carol C. Frye, a spokeswoman for Anne Arundel County Police Department.

The plane crashed into Beards Creek, about 150 feet from the Berkshire residential area in Edgewater.

Knight had flown from Delray Beach and had planned to stay with a friend on his boat Saturday night in Annapolis before flying to New York to see his son, said Cpl. Larry Walker, commander of the county police aviation unit.

Knight apparently was trying to land at Lee Airport.

Police were notified at 5: 43 p.m. Saturday by a man who witnessed the crash, Frye said. Officials from Anne Arundel and Queen Anne's counties, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Coast Guard located the plane at 11 p.m., Frye said. Frye said an autopsy was pending.

Pub Date: 11/23/98