Plane crashes into building in Austin, Texas

[SimCaptain]

A small airplane crashed into a building in Austin, Texas


Latest updates: Plane crashes into building in Austin, Texas - CNN.com (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/02/18/texas.plane.crash/index.html)

[Piper_Driver]

Fox is saying that this may be an intentional act
Small Plane Crashes Into Austin, Texas, Office Building - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586581,00.html)

Looks like someone may have become really ticked off at the IRS.

[121decimal375]

CNN reporting live

"Federal Official: pilot burned his house down, stole plane before crash"

[ARNSpoty]

A small aircraft crashed straight into an office building in Northwest Austin, Texas, said several U.S. media
Police have cordoned off streets in the area. The accident happened at ten o'clock in the morning, local time. According to news site KVUE was a single-engine plane crashed into the house. Most windows were blown out by the collision.

[Lon More]

Allegedly from the pilot (http://www.businessinsider.com/joseph-andrew-stacks-insane-manifesto-2010-2)

[Cirrus_Clouds]

Someone had a bad day, set their own house alight then flew their Cirrus into the Tax Office, setting that on fire:
Man flies aircraft into Texas tax office after setting home on fire - Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7032669.ece)

[wileydog3]

Not a Cirrus and intentional so it seems.

FAA Registry - Aircraft - N-Number Results (http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=2889d)

Also, there is a 'manifesto' on the web of this guy ranting about being screwed over by the IRS.

[Doug E Style]

That's screwed his chances of a rebate this year.

[119.4]

Already covered. see thread in private flying.:ugh:

[Cirrus_Clouds]

Yep, just seen, a direct link http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/406152-plane-crashes-into-building-austin-texas.html

[protectthehornet]

`seems to have been a piper cherokee, pa28.

lots of fire...50 gallons or so of gasnormally aboard with full tanks.

so

wondering if any other accelerants or explosives used?

mental illness? frustration? `

[Ryan5252]

wondering if any other accelerants or explosives used?

My thoughts exactly. I was amazed with the level of damage a PA-28 could be responsible for. That said, I suppose with full tanks of fuel and an impact in a concentrated area like a building there is evidently a domino effect and the fire will destroy most things in its path. It is however humbling to witness the level of responsibility we as pilots have to the ground folk and the potential damage to life and property that we harness every time we turn the key.

Every day's a school day.

[Loose rivets]

Watching it via 'I Goog oil'. Number 3 kid looking out of his window to see if he can see smoke. For him, a little too close to home.

It seems that it hit a car before entering the building. Perhaps he wanted to arrive via the front door to make his statement.

Whatever the reasoning, if it can be called that, he did effect an extraordinarily efficient method of spreading the fire - with perhaps nothing but a combination of fuel and a newly forged air inlet.

[RatherBeFlying]

Be grateful he chose a SEP. Fertiliser and Diesel in a truck or van would make a much bigger bang.

Mind you, it's a bit harder to walk in off the street and buy the stuff these days;)

[IO540]

It seems that there has been a fairly constant undercurrent of suicides in GA. I've been flying for just 10 years and I can remember a few in the UK - and that's just the proven ones (like that bloke off the IOW who said bye to all and went into the sea).

Some people say suicides on the road are common - e.g. judging how many people used to hit motorway bridges but this stopped once the crash barriers were installed (no; they didn't go into the barriers).

The thing which concerns me is that a lot of suicides, especially those involving young people, are "fashionable". There is anyway a sizeable teenage cult of overt depression (the "EMO" kind of thing - ask your teenage son/daughter :) ) but hopefully not many of those types will be able to get any flying lessons. But crashing planes into buildings is bound to bring along a few copycat cases...

Fertiliser and Diesel in a truck or van would make a much bigger bang.

I think it takes a little more "technology" than just mixing those two?

[protectthehornet]

CNN has said the plane was a DAKOTA...84 gals of gas on that one...4 gas tanks

one could put avgas into one tank to fly the plane and fill the other tanks with accelerant to make a big fire.

[IO540]

Indeed, but you could get an awful lot more stuff into a van and drive that into your tax office...

[con-pilot]

Indeed, but you could get an awful lot more stuff into a van and drive that into your tax office...

That is indeed true.

[englishal]

I can understand a grievance with the IRS, but to waste a perfectly good Dakota on it...? The guy was nuts.

[Piper_Driver]

I just hope this doesn't lead to an overbearing clamp down by the TSA on general aviation. I'm sure Phil Boyer of AOPA is at the TSA right now trying to make sure that doesn't happen.

[onetrack]

I don't know why the U.S. concentrates on terrorists in Afghanistan and the Middle East, when they have more to worry about, from home-grown nutters.

The attitude of this warped individual, as represented by what he left on his website, is typical of many extreme right-wing Americans.
I frequent a number of U.S. based forums, and the same expressed attitudes come across on a regular basis - "the Govt/Govt Dept/IRS/ATF is out to get us" - "stock up on ammo and guns, we're gunna need them" - "they are taxing us to death, I should never have to pay tax; I'm gonna take them all out when I get a chance" - and the quote from this nutters website represents what they all firmly believe - "violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer".

The same attitude comes across loud and clear in the regular mass shootings in the U.S. These people have a fascination with violence, obsession with control; and mixed in with the God-given right to possess the biggest weapons available, I'm surprised that this bloke didn't arm the plane with a heap of heavy weaponry, and shoot up the town (and a heap of innocent civilians) before he kamikazied.
The biggest single problem for the rest of the world, is trying to stop the export of the rabid ideas of these nutters, to our copycats.
I can see private flying becoming more restricted by security bureaucracy, as a result of this episode.

[englishal]

The problem is that they see on telly someone get shot by a Glock. On TV they get up and carry on fighting. Then they put a bandage on it, and hey presto the next scene they are in the bar drinking....rather in hospital dosed up on morphine waiting for the trauma surgeon to come and remove part of their leg.

So they have a warped perspective of violence...i.e. being shot by a Glock is a minor injury in Hollywood, and I guess some people just don't get it. Access to defence weapons (pistols & assault rifles for example) clearly leads to more "wouldbe nutters" losing the plot and blasting a shopping mall. Finland is another European example. They laugh at the British bobby being unarmed, yet to be honest I'd rather they were unarmed and that we were unarmed, that way if you get into a spot of bother, you may end up with a black eye or broken bone, not a bullet in the head.

Nothing wrong with owning and using a hunting rifle, I just fail to see why a civillian need a variant of an M4 assault rifle...?

Other than that (and Bush) america is a great place :ok:

[fernytickles]

Piper_Driver,

I think you will find Phil Boyer retired about a year ago, so that would be Craig Fuller nowadays...

And I think it is fair to say that all the aviation advocacy organisations - EAA, AOPA, NBAA and others will be working hard to keep the over reaction of non-aviators to a minimum. Especially if the aviation community support them with membership!

[WestWind1950]

after the crazy pilot flew over Frankfurt a couple of years ago, threatening to flight into one of the skyscrappers, a lot of work was done convincing the "big boys" that a small plane wouldn't cause enough damage to make everyone panic like they did. Well, this stupid event destroyed all those arguements. :ugh:

I may have missed it, but was the guy even a pilot? He did seem to know what he was doing.... :uhoh:

[Loose rivets]

"A very experienced pilot."


If you look on Googoil Earth at Austin. The site is to the NNW of the town where the Route 1 "Mopac" crosses the 183. There is a vast spaghetti junction there, and the building is on the roadside to the west and up a bit. 9418 Research Blvd. Austin Tx looks like it on the very good street photo, but I'm not sure.

[akaSylvia]

I've collected the bits and pieces of information here. I've tried to make sure everything cited is verifiable:

Fear of Landing » Austin Pilot Suicide: Joe Stack (http://www.fearoflanding.com/accidents/austin-pilot-suicide-joe-stack/)

(edit: fixed the link)

[mary meagher]

As stated in the previous "Fear of Landing" essay, this little Dakota is really a Piper Cherokee, not what the Brits call a Dakota. Full fuel 84 gallons.

I did my IR at Georgetown, just north of Austin. I have family living not far from Research Boulevard, where the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) was located, that would have been about 10 minutes flying from Georgetown, being on the North side of Austin.

Unfortunately for my family, who is also up the creek with the IRS after them for the past 8 years, the records all survived as they are kept in a warehouse downtown. However, the only vehicle available for my family is a 20 year old Ford pickup truck, rather than a privately owned aeroplane.

Simpler just to hand the housekeys back to the bank and leave town.

[Kulwin Park]

It seems that there has been a fairly constant undercurrent of suicides in GA.

IO-540 wrote above, that suicides are in GA. In Australia last year, there was a guy in Tasmania (well sorta of a part of Australia - LOL) who commktted uicide over some business/financial reason from memory. He rammed his really good Bonanza into the side of a mountain there. Nothing left of course. Quick easy way to go ... apart from the difficult clean-up that was involved.

Bit of a shame that it happens at all, but sounds like people want to go out doing what they love sometimes... :oh:

[smarthawke]

At the risk of being extremely pedantic, we call our Piper PA28-236 Dakota, a Dakota because that's what it is (according to the TCDS). And we're Brits. And the fuel capacity is 77 USG in two tanks.

PA28-235 Cherokee Pathfinder has 84 USG capacity in two main tanks and two tip tanks.

All that said, shame about the aircraft and the loss of life - could have been much worse though...

[protectthehornet]

in world war 2, the british called the American C47 (DC3) a Dakota. Perhaps this is part of the confusion.

I remember the pathfinder and its 4 tanks and the newer version, the dakota and its simplified fuel system. its one of the ony piper singles I never flew.

either way, anyone who could afford to own a dakota ) of either type) shouldn't be complaining so much about taxes.

[Fantome]

Just a date adjustment for you KP -

September 26 2006

An experienced 57 year-old pilot flying his classic V35B V-Tail Beechcraft Bonanza slammed into the 319-metre high Mount Killiecrankie on Flinders Island in Bass Strait shortly after departing the local airstrip. Circumstances leading up to the crash, including the possibility that it was not an unforeseen accident, are under investigation by police. The pilot had moved from Melbourne to Flinders Island with his female companion about a year ago after building a house at nearby Palana Bay. The pilot, Peter Waterhouse, is reported to have left a note.