There are IRS offices in the building....
Chris Messer was driving to work about 9:50 a.m. when he was on the flyover exiting MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) to northbound U.S. 183 when he saw a small, single-engine yellow plane in his peripheral vision.
“It flew right in front of me and flew right square into the building,” said Messner, 27. “The fireball was pretty big. It shook my car and the heat came in from my air vents. I was surprised how big the explosion is.”
Messner said the explosion was “as wide as the entire building.”
“The tail was down slightly like it was trying to pull up a little bit,” Messner said. “It happened really fast.”
Sarah Whelan, 28, was also driving on the overpass from MoPac onto U.S. 183 north on her way to work when she saw the plane on her right, flying low over the shops across the street from the building that was hit.
She said all the cars in front of me started slowing down because the plane looked like it could it land on the highway.
“It wasn’t heading into the direction of the building but all of a sudden it took a right and headed straight into it,” Whelan said. “It didn’t look like it was in distress. It wasn’t wavering at all.
Update: The alleged pilot's alleged suicide note is up at the Smoking Gun.
Should be interesting to see how the coverage of this tragedy unfolds.
It sounds so far like there is only one person missing, other than the pilot.
I find it hard to believe there aren't more casualties. That's a lot of damage.
Looks like it might be an angry (ex)taxpayer ? My wife used to work in that building.
Tax time is a bitch.
From the gov: cited above.
“At this time we have no reason to believe there is a nexus to criminal or terrorist activity,” Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, told CNN. “We are in the process of coordinating with state officials and other federal partners to gather more information and at this time we will defer additional questions to local officials and the FAA.”
But:
"Anti-Christian Communist responsible for Austin Terrorist Attack: Suicide Note Posted Online.
If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse."
[...]
"The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Joe Stack (1956-2010)
02/18/2010"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2454242/posts
...-
Unabomber manifesto here:
www.newshare.com/Newshare/Common/News/manifesto.html
Flying planes into federal office buildings does not make the US of A a better, more just place. So yes, you are a crackpot, traitor to your country and dam'ed to hell for all eternity (most likely).
whoever wrote that "headline" at free republic needs to improve their reading comprehension skills.
The guy obviously got dicked around by IRS bureaucracy, among other things. Yeah, he didn't like the Catholic Church (neither do half the people in Toronto...) but he didn't fly his plane into the nearest basillica, right?
Let the labelling begin!
Just another violent left-winger. Ho hum. Nothing to see here. Move along.
This message approved by the MSM.
that's quite a letter there maz2, it's now also posted at "the smoking gun", apparently he set his house on fire this morning, a woman and girl were saved by a neighbor...
gateway pundit is following the story... más uff.
From his suicide note, he obviously didn't want to retire on social assistance and just survive eating cat food.
From his suicide note, he obviously didn't want to retire on social assistance and just survive eating cat food.
Can't tell the difference between principal and principle either. Those nuts can't spell either.
Anti-Christian Communist?
Look up the defenition of anarchist.
What a sad & tragic waste of a perfectly good Piper Cherokee Dakota.
Call him what you will but he killed a 6 year old child. What a fuc##n as$hole and not to mention attempted to kill innocent people.
The guy was a Lefty and he didn't like to pay taxes?
Nuttier than squirrel-shit.
Jeez, I am disapointed that the pilot was not some guy named Mohammed Abullah Ramiplanein building.
You all are also.
No, we all aren't: speak for yourself, sir.
"Jeez, I am disapointed that the pilot was not some guy named Mohammed "
I'm kind of grateful for the variety, but not shocked it was some kind of lefty.
Won't be surprised if primary cause was divorce + IRS screwing him over though.
Want to bet this transmogrifies into some TV show where formerly devout Christian crashes/blows up into church after his Ex aborts or something? I got a dollar it will within a year.
The left's march into nihilism.
Leftist MSM/Times starts the coverup.
There is no mention of this:
"The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Joe Stack (1956-2010)
02/18/2010"
...-
"the White House emphasised that the incident did not appear to be linked to terrorism."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7032669.ece
...-
Flashback:
"The Kennedy Assassination"
"He didn't even have the satisfaction of being killed for civil rights . . . . It's — it had to be some silly little Communist." — Jackie Kennedy, on hearing that a leftist had been arrested for her husband's murder."
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/home.htm
"No, we all aren't.." Virtous
Well 'most'
It's just an informed guess considering the majority of commentators so don't get your knickers all in a twist
Shaidle, the lefty blogs had already labeled this nut as a tea-bagging tax protester. The title of that follow-on posting was meant to derail that bit of propaganda, since the MSM was already trending their way.
It was FReeper "good old days" that found Stacks's suicide note, and posted the link.
Freepers Rule!
Just another reason why we need racial profiling...or..err..sh*t...nevermind.
In case you don't know the definition of terrorism, steve at February 18, 2010 3:26 PM, a terrorist act has to do with advancing a cause.
example:
Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan embarks on a shooting spree at Ford Hood and kills 14 people with 43 casualties total.
Why?
He was following a ideology, he did it for Islam.
Hasan was a terrorist.
example:
Dr. Amy Bishop embarks on a shooting spree at the University of Alabama in Huntsville killing 3 and wounding 3 others.
Why?
She felt she was personally entitled to something others thought she wasn't.
Bishop was not a terrorist, she was a disgruntled nut-bar and also a Leftist.
See the difference, steve?
From The IRS Medic:
To those calling this guy a leftist...please..read his note. The whole thing speaks to his disgruntled nature with regard to government interference in his pocket book.
There are crazy people all over the aisle.
I can find no fault with the logic in his note. Also I can see no indication he was a communist. His closing notes reek of irony, not leftism.
It's worse than that Steve. He complains that everything has gone wrong
in his life, and it is always someone else's fault. That's simply psychotic.
we in here keep complaining about the HRC's, to no avail
we complain about the lie called global warning (cap'n trade) , seemingly to no avail
this guy made a statement, maybe in a poor way, yet he has been heard, I hope Nobama, and our own fool, Harper, are listening
If you think Prime Minister Harper is a
fool, you are as psychotic as Stack was.
Canuck guy - you display no understanding of the attitudes of the commenters here, so please don't put words in anybodies mouth. To the contrary, I would guess that 98% of people who read this blog are glad this wasn't an organized terror attack by supporters of Islamic jihad. I would also guess most are glad it wasn't some right wing looney because the MSM would try to make that reflect on all us non socialists.
The irony of it?
Not irony; left-liberalism.
Within a week two leftists march into the abyss of nihilism which is the natural end result of left-liberalism.
The other leftist is Amy Bishop:
"A family source said Bishop, a mother of four children - the youngest a third-grade boy - was a far-left political extremist who was “obsessed” with President Obama to the point of being off-putting."
Boston Herald:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100215oddball_protrait_emerges_suspects_family_pals_offer_clues/srvc=home&position=0
I read the guy's note, and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with the IRS section he cited. Does it mean he can't deduct certain expenses? Does it mean he pays taxes at a higher rate than other people? He never explained it, blamed his accountant for his (Stack's) under-reporting of income, and blamed the government when he didn't file his protest in time.
And then he claims that an expensive piano was a "business asset". How does one figure that, when he says he was a software developer? And what was his beef with the FAA?
Sorry, the guy just sounds like a loon who went off his meds. I'm amazed that no one was killed by his attack.
"I AM DOCTOR AMY BISHOP"!
http://michellemalkin.com/2010/02/17/i-am-dr-amy-bishop/
leftists with guns... and I'm sure they're for the ducks.
Greg @ 5:04, I second that.
I just read his note, he sounds like someone who made a series of bad decisions, and simply never could take responsibility for them. Any engineer, and especially a software engineer from his era who couldn't make it, had to work hard at failing.
There are crazy people all over the aisle.
~steve
Yes there are.
A lot of people who do things like this do them because they snap from frustration.
That said, the more you think you are entitled to, the more frustration you are likely to experience when you don't get what you want.
In my experience, Leftists have the greatest sense of entitlment.
The guy flew his own airplane into a building.
Maybe if he sold the piano and the airplane he could have paid his taxes with the proceeds, but chances are he bought a lot of things he couldn't really afford because he thought he was entitled to them so he wouldn't have come out in the black if he sold his stuff, including the home burned down.
My sense is that he destroyed his most valuable possessions because if he couldn't get what he thought he was entitled to, nobody else was going to get them either.
He had obviously lost it, although I will say that the IRS in the US is run by blood thirsty savages who will eat your children if need be.
Have an old university buddy in the US who made a purely innocent mistake on his taxes. The IRS treated him as if he was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list.
Tax collection is one area where Canada has a more civilized system than our friends in the US.
Actually, Canada has a slightly more civilized system than our
friends in the US in most ways, it's just that we're slightly less
individualistically free. Horns of a dichotomy [sic], eh what?
He's not liberal nor conservative. Just a vile human being who couldn't go gently into that good night. Had to make a fuss about it because he was too much of a coward to take that risk when he was alive.
Sorry pal, by Monday, you won't even be a trivia question. But you have managed to humiliate you family for generations to come. Way to go Arsehole.
Gee Vitruvius, I love your APA writing style. Cucumber sandwich?
Quite so, old chap, alas: no chatting, my dear fellow ~ won't do at all ;-)
Quite. Good show with a good sense of humour.
Kevin, I ROFLed over your
"expensive piano"
You have no clue what expensive piano is.
US customs destroying $300,000 piano over misunderstanding about several bottles of chemicals shipped with it - how's that?
Have you ever been to any piano stores???
Y'hear that, Kevin: you have no clue.
It's funny, Aaron, how your comments here are always
telling us about how everything is always going wrong in
your life, and about how it's always someone else's fault.
set you free:
Just another violent left-winger. Ho hum. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Sorry dude...he was an engineer on his second wife, had made some very bad tax decisions, owed $40K to the IRS, and was incensed that Obama bailed out Wall Street but left him high and dry.
IOW, he was one of yours.
I didn't entirely disagree with his comments about the bailouts though.
Shifty... that's an appropriate name.
I suspect a false flag incident from the Dem controlled spook brigades.
Remember this is a Marxist regime that is EXTREMELY anxious to start a war with the so-called "tea party people" (Paleo-conservatives/populists/libertarians/contitutionalist patriots).This admin has had thjeir media wing demonizin anyone who opposes tax and spend big government as dangerous racist rabble. I remain jaded about such dramatic political events when Occam states that 20 small aircraft a year crash in urban areas due to pilots having heart attacks and strokes.
Accident is the norm dramatic suicide acts of right wing patriot terrorism are not.