http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/us/19crash.html?ref=us
Plane Hits I.R.S. Building in Texas
By SEWELL CHAN
Published: February 18, 2010
In what federal and local officials called a criminal act, a man crashed a small plane Thursday morning into a seven-story office building in Austin, Tex., that houses offices of the Internal Revenue Service, the authorities said.
Thirteen people were injured, with two people still hospitalized, Austin officials said in an afternoon news conference. One person who worked in the building, along with the pilot, was still unaccounted for, they said.
President Obama was briefed on the situation by his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, at 12:35 p.m., according to Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary. But while the Department of Homeland Security was investigating the crash, federal officials emphasized that they did not consider the case to be a terrorist attack. Officials in Austin reiterated that point, calling it a “criminal” and not terrorist, attack.
“This appears to be a singular act by a single individual,” Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said at the news conference. “It appears to be contained to this facility, and there really truly is no cause for alarm. We’re lucky. We’ve been blessed that things could have been a lot worse.”
Yet Texas Gov. Rick Perry called the crash of the single-engine plane a “deliberate and intentional” act against a federal building that revealed security weaknesses since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The seven-story building, at 9430 Research Boulevard in northwest Austin, about seven miles northwest of the State Capitol, was consumed by flames after the crash. It continued to burn for hours, and by early afternoon firefighters had only been able to search the three lowest floors.
The authorities identified the pilot as Joseph A. Stack III, 53, and said his body had not yet been recovered from the building. The other person who was still unaccounted for was described by officials as a federal employee. A long, angry note posted on the Internet, on a Web site registered to Mr. Stack and signed “Joe Stack,” appeared to have been written by the pilot, though authorities had not confirmed the connection. By midafternoon, the company that hosted the site had taken the note down, saying it was acting at the request of the F.B.I.
The note related a long history of financial difficulties and frustrations with the nation’s tax and health care systems and with setbacks like the sharp decline of defense-related employment in southern California in the 1990s and the disruption of air travel after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001. It ended with passages strongly suggesting that its author expected to die on Thursday, including a reference to Feb. 18, 2010, as his date of death.
“I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different,” the note concluded. “I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.”
The F.B.I., which set up a command post near the scene of the crash, has a small satellite office — part of the bureau’s San Antonio field office — in a different part of the office complex where the crash took place.
Bill Carter, an F.B.I. spokesman, said the criminal inquiry was in its early stages. “It’s a fluid situation that’s under investigation,” he said, which was echoed in a statement by Texas Gov. Perry. “There are a lot of indications but nothing definitive yet.”
As for Mr. Stack’s apparent suicide note, Mr. Carter said, “That’s being looked at by our San Antonio office, if that is a real note by this individual.”
The plane, a single-engine, fixed-wing Piper PA-28-236 Dakota, was registered in Mr. Stack’s name in California, according to aviation records. It took off from the Georgetown Municipal Airport, about 25 miles north of Austin, at 9:40 a.m., said Royce E. Curtin, an F.B.I. spokesman. At 9:55 a.m., witnesses reported seeing a low-flying aircraft in the vicinity of the office building. A minute later, the plane smashed into the building, he said. Mr. Curtin added that the forensic investigation would start in earnest after the building was deemed safe, and Mr. Stack’s identify could not be officially confirmed until then.
“The ceiling caved in and windows blew in,” Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who was sitting at her desk in the building when the plane crashed, told The Associated Press.” We got up and ran,”
At least 13 people were treated at the scene after the crash, many of them suffering burn and heat inhalation injuries, said Ernie Rodriguez, chief of emergency medical services in Austin. He said two of those people were taken to a local hospital in critical condition. Firefighters were still putting out small pockets of fire Thursday afternoon and expected to begin combing through the ruins for the body of the pilot and the federal employee who was still unaccounted for. Chief Acevedo said the person’s family had been notified.
“I will just say that the prospects are not very positive for that person at this time,” he added.
While the building housed 190 I.R.S. employees, the agency’s main office has a much larger service center in Austin, about six miles southeast of the office building that was hit, which processes millions of tax returns from several states. In the initial confusion after the crash, workers there were alarmed about whether they too might be in danger, officials said.
As a precaution, the North American Aerospace Defense Command sent two F-16 fighter jets into the air from Ellington Air Force Base in Houston after the crash, to conduct an air patrol.” This response from Norad is a prudent precaution, and consistent with our response to recent similar air incidents,” said Jamie Graybeal, a civilian spokesman for Norad.
Employees and offices of the tax agency have faced threats and even attacks in other cities in the past. In December 1995, a bomb in a 30-gallon drum was found in a parking lot outside the I.R.S. office in Reno, Nev., but it failed to explode.
In April 1990, a firebomb packed with a tea bag — a reference to the Boston Tea Party — and addressed to the I.R.S. was placed in the mail in Royal Oak, Mich. It exploded, injuring a postal worker.
Anahad O’Connor and Jack Healy contributed reporting.
Plane Hits I.R.S. Building in Texas
By SEWELL CHAN
Published: February 18, 2010
In what federal and local officials called a criminal act, a man crashed a small plane Thursday morning into a seven-story office building in Austin, Tex., that houses offices of the Internal Revenue Service, the authorities said.
Thirteen people were injured, with two people still hospitalized, Austin officials said in an afternoon news conference. One person who worked in the building, along with the pilot, was still unaccounted for, they said.
President Obama was briefed on the situation by his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, at 12:35 p.m., according to Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary. But while the Department of Homeland Security was investigating the crash, federal officials emphasized that they did not consider the case to be a terrorist attack. Officials in Austin reiterated that point, calling it a “criminal” and not terrorist, attack.
“This appears to be a singular act by a single individual,” Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said at the news conference. “It appears to be contained to this facility, and there really truly is no cause for alarm. We’re lucky. We’ve been blessed that things could have been a lot worse.”
Yet Texas Gov. Rick Perry called the crash of the single-engine plane a “deliberate and intentional” act against a federal building that revealed security weaknesses since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The seven-story building, at 9430 Research Boulevard in northwest Austin, about seven miles northwest of the State Capitol, was consumed by flames after the crash. It continued to burn for hours, and by early afternoon firefighters had only been able to search the three lowest floors.
The authorities identified the pilot as Joseph A. Stack III, 53, and said his body had not yet been recovered from the building. The other person who was still unaccounted for was described by officials as a federal employee. A long, angry note posted on the Internet, on a Web site registered to Mr. Stack and signed “Joe Stack,” appeared to have been written by the pilot, though authorities had not confirmed the connection. By midafternoon, the company that hosted the site had taken the note down, saying it was acting at the request of the F.B.I.
The note related a long history of financial difficulties and frustrations with the nation’s tax and health care systems and with setbacks like the sharp decline of defense-related employment in southern California in the 1990s and the disruption of air travel after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001. It ended with passages strongly suggesting that its author expected to die on Thursday, including a reference to Feb. 18, 2010, as his date of death.
“I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different,” the note concluded. “I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.”
The F.B.I., which set up a command post near the scene of the crash, has a small satellite office — part of the bureau’s San Antonio field office — in a different part of the office complex where the crash took place.
Bill Carter, an F.B.I. spokesman, said the criminal inquiry was in its early stages. “It’s a fluid situation that’s under investigation,” he said, which was echoed in a statement by Texas Gov. Perry. “There are a lot of indications but nothing definitive yet.”
As for Mr. Stack’s apparent suicide note, Mr. Carter said, “That’s being looked at by our San Antonio office, if that is a real note by this individual.”
The plane, a single-engine, fixed-wing Piper PA-28-236 Dakota, was registered in Mr. Stack’s name in California, according to aviation records. It took off from the Georgetown Municipal Airport, about 25 miles north of Austin, at 9:40 a.m., said Royce E. Curtin, an F.B.I. spokesman. At 9:55 a.m., witnesses reported seeing a low-flying aircraft in the vicinity of the office building. A minute later, the plane smashed into the building, he said. Mr. Curtin added that the forensic investigation would start in earnest after the building was deemed safe, and Mr. Stack’s identify could not be officially confirmed until then.
“The ceiling caved in and windows blew in,” Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who was sitting at her desk in the building when the plane crashed, told The Associated Press.” We got up and ran,”
At least 13 people were treated at the scene after the crash, many of them suffering burn and heat inhalation injuries, said Ernie Rodriguez, chief of emergency medical services in Austin. He said two of those people were taken to a local hospital in critical condition. Firefighters were still putting out small pockets of fire Thursday afternoon and expected to begin combing through the ruins for the body of the pilot and the federal employee who was still unaccounted for. Chief Acevedo said the person’s family had been notified.
“I will just say that the prospects are not very positive for that person at this time,” he added.
While the building housed 190 I.R.S. employees, the agency’s main office has a much larger service center in Austin, about six miles southeast of the office building that was hit, which processes millions of tax returns from several states. In the initial confusion after the crash, workers there were alarmed about whether they too might be in danger, officials said.
As a precaution, the North American Aerospace Defense Command sent two F-16 fighter jets into the air from Ellington Air Force Base in Houston after the crash, to conduct an air patrol.” This response from Norad is a prudent precaution, and consistent with our response to recent similar air incidents,” said Jamie Graybeal, a civilian spokesman for Norad.
Employees and offices of the tax agency have faced threats and even attacks in other cities in the past. In December 1995, a bomb in a 30-gallon drum was found in a parking lot outside the I.R.S. office in Reno, Nev., but it failed to explode.
In April 1990, a firebomb packed with a tea bag — a reference to the Boston Tea Party — and addressed to the I.R.S. was placed in the mail in Royal Oak, Mich. It exploded, injuring a postal worker.
Anahad O’Connor and Jack Healy contributed reporting.
