Man Angry at IRS Crashes Plane into Office
Updated at 10:06 p.m. EST
A software engineer furious with the U.S. tax agency plowed his small plane into an office building housing nearly 200 federal tax employees on Thursday, officials said, setting off a raging fire that sent workers fleeing as thick plumes of black smoke poured into the air.
Emergency crews have found two bodies in the wreckage. At least 13 people were injured, two critically.
Austin Fire Department Battalion Chief Palmer Buck said late Thursday that authorities "have now accounted for everybody," but declined to discuss the identities of those found.
Authorities said earlier that the pilot who crashed into the building was presumed dead and that one worker in the building had been missing.
A U.S. law official identified the pilot as Joseph Stack - whose home was set on fire just before the crash - and said investigators were looking at ananti-government message on the Web linked to him. The
Photos: Austin Crash Pilot Joseph Stack
Federal law enforcement officials have said they were investigating whether the pilot slammed into the Austin building on purpose in an effort to blow up IRS offices. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
Aftermath: 13 Injured, Two Critically
"Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer," the long note on Stack's Web site reads, citing past problems with the tax-collecting agency.
"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. 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 note, dated Thursday, reads.
Austin Pilot Left Anti-IRS Suicide Note
The note, dated February 18, 2010, is signed: "Joe Stack (1956-2010)."
Despite the grim diary, Stack was described as even-tempered and unflappable by the manager of a band in which he used to play.
"He talked politics like everyone but didn't show any obsession," said Pam Parker, the manager of the Billy Eli Band.
Joseph Stack Described as "Easy Going"
Patrick Beach, a writer for the Austin American Statesman who practiced in a band with Stack and his wife Cheryl, says he's shocked.
"It seems extremely out of character," he told CBS News correspondent Don Teague. "He was the quintessential, stereotypical, straight-out-of-central-casting, mild-mannered, bespectacled engineer type."
At least one person who worked in the building was unaccounted for and two people were hospitalized, said Austin Fire Department Division Chief Dawn Clopton. She did not have any information about the pilot. About 190 IRS employees work in the building, and IRS spokesman Richard C. Sanford the agency was trying to account for all of its workers.
After the plane crashed into the building, flames shot out, windows exploded and workers scrambled to safety. Thick smoke billowed out of the second and third stories hours later as fire crews battled the blaze.
"The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran," said Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who was sitting at her desk in the building when the plane crashed.
Andrew Jacobson was on the second floor when he heard a "big whoomp" and then a second explosion. He also thought a bomb exploded.
"When I went to look out the window I saw wreckage, wheels and everything. That's when I realized it was a plane," said Jacobson, whose bloody hands were bandaged.
Jacobson, also an IRS revenue officer, said about six people couldn't use the stairwell because of smoke and debris. He found metal bar to bust a window so the group could crawl out on a concrete ledge where they were rescued by firefighters.
Earlier Thursday, about five miles (eight kilometers) from the crash site, Stack's $232,000 home was engulfed in flames. Two law enforcement officials said Stack had apparently set fire to his home before the crash.
The roof of Stack's red brick home on a tree-lined street in a middle-class neighborhood was mostly caved in, and the home's windows were blown out. The garage doors were open and a big pile of debris was inside.
Elbert Hutchins, who lives one house away, said a woman and her teenage daughter drove up to the house before firefighters arrived.
"They both were very, very distraught," said Hutchins, a retiree who said he didn't know the family well. "'That's our house!' they cried 'That's our house!"'
Red Cross spokeswoman Marty McKellips said the agency was treating two people who live in the house. She said they would not be commenting.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said the pilot took off from nearby Georgetown but didn't file a flight plan. FAA records show that a Piper PA-28 Cherokee with the same tail number as the plane that flew into the building is registered to Joseph A. Stack.
The Georgetown airport was later evacuated and a bomb squad was on the scene. However, federal authorities told CBS News the airport was declared all clear and no bomb was found in Stack's vehicle.
"We are treating this very seriously," says one official. As well as local officials, the FBI and ATF have bomb technicians on the scene.
Those who saw the plane before it slammed into the building were stunned to see it flying so low.
"It was insane," said Matt Farney, 39, who was in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot. "It didn't look like he was out of control or anything."
Reginaldo Tiul-Tiul, a dishwasher at the nearby Sushi Sake Japanese Cuisine, said he had just gotten off a bus and was waiting to go into work when he saw the plane crash.
"I looked at my co-worker and said, 'Why is that plane so low?"' Tiul-Tiul, 30, said in Spanish. "It went straight for the building."
Sitting at her desk in another building about a half-mile (less then one kilometer) from the crash, Michelle Santibanez said she felt vibrations. She and her co-workers ran to the windows, where they saw a scene that reminded them of the Sept. 11, 2001 U.S. terror attacks, she said.
"It was the same kind of scenario with window panels falling out and desks falling out and paperwork flying," said Santibanez, an accountant.
The National Transportation Safety Board said an investigator from the board's Dallas office has been dispatched to the scene of the crash. The White House also said President Barack Obama was briefed about the crash.
As a precaution, the Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command launched two F-16 aircraft from Houston's Ellington Field, and is conducting an air patrol over the crash area.
According to California Secretary of State records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's Franchise Tax Board.
In 1985, he incorporated Prowess Engineering Inc. in Corona. It was suspended two years later. He started Software Systems Service Corp. in Lincoln in 1995 and that entity was suspended in 2001. Stack listed himself as chief executive officer of both companies.
Correction: A previous version of this story ran a quote falsely attributed to DHS Spokesman Matt Chandler saying the Austin plane crash was equal to the Fort Hood killings.
© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. A software engineer furious with the U.S. tax agency plowed his small plane into an office building housing nearly 200 federal tax employees on Thursday, officials said, setting off a raging fire that sent workers fleeing as thick plumes of black smoke poured into the air.
Emergency crews have found two bodies in the wreckage. At least 13 people were injured, two critically.
Austin Fire Department Battalion Chief Palmer Buck said late Thursday that authorities "have now accounted for everybody," but declined to discuss the identities of those found.
Authorities said earlier that the pilot who crashed into the building was presumed dead and that one worker in the building had been missing.
A U.S. law official identified the pilot as Joseph Stack - whose home was set on fire just before the crash - and said investigators were looking at an
Photos: Austin Crash Pilot Joseph Stack
Federal law enforcement officials have said they were investigating whether the pilot slammed into the Austin building on purpose in an effort to blow up IRS offices. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
Aftermath: 13 Injured, Two Critically
"Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer," the long note on Stack's Web site reads, citing past problems with the tax-collecting agency.
"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. 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 note, dated Thursday, reads.
Austin Pilot Left Anti-IRS Suicide Note
The note, dated February 18, 2010, is signed: "Joe Stack (1956-2010)."
Despite the grim diary, Stack was described as even-tempered and unflappable by the manager of a band in which he used to play.
"He talked politics like everyone but didn't show any obsession," said Pam Parker, the manager of the Billy Eli Band.
Joseph Stack Described as "Easy Going"
Patrick Beach, a writer for the Austin American Statesman who practiced in a band with Stack and his wife Cheryl, says he's shocked.
"It seems extremely out of character," he told CBS News correspondent Don Teague. "He was the quintessential, stereotypical, straight-out-of-central-casting, mild-mannered, bespectacled engineer type."
At least one person who worked in the building was unaccounted for and two people were hospitalized, said Austin Fire Department Division Chief Dawn Clopton. She did not have any information about the pilot. About 190 IRS employees work in the building, and IRS spokesman Richard C. Sanford the agency was trying to account for all of its workers.
After the plane crashed into the building, flames shot out, windows exploded and workers scrambled to safety. Thick smoke billowed out of the second and third stories hours later as fire crews battled the blaze.
(CBS)
Andrew Jacobson was on the second floor when he heard a "big whoomp" and then a second explosion. He also thought a bomb exploded.
"When I went to look out the window I saw wreckage, wheels and everything. That's when I realized it was a plane," said Jacobson, whose bloody hands were bandaged.
Jacobson, also an IRS revenue officer, said about six people couldn't use the stairwell because of smoke and debris. He found metal bar to bust a window so the group could crawl out on a concrete ledge where they were rescued by firefighters.
Earlier Thursday, about five miles (eight kilometers) from the crash site, Stack's $232,000 home was engulfed in flames. Two law enforcement officials said Stack had apparently set fire to his home before the crash.
The roof of Stack's red brick home on a tree-lined street in a middle-class neighborhood was mostly caved in, and the home's windows were blown out. The garage doors were open and a big pile of debris was inside.
Elbert Hutchins, who lives one house away, said a woman and her teenage daughter drove up to the house before firefighters arrived.
"They both were very, very distraught," said Hutchins, a retiree who said he didn't know the family well. "'That's our house!' they cried 'That's our house!"'
Red Cross spokeswoman Marty McKellips said the agency was treating two people who live in the house. She said they would not be commenting.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said the pilot took off from nearby Georgetown but didn't file a flight plan. FAA records show that a Piper PA-28 Cherokee with the same tail number as the plane that flew into the building is registered to Joseph A. Stack.
The Georgetown airport was later evacuated and a bomb squad was on the scene. However, federal authorities told CBS News the airport was declared all clear and no bomb was found in Stack's vehicle.
"We are treating this very seriously," says one official. As well as local officials, the FBI and ATF have bomb technicians on the scene.
Those who saw the plane before it slammed into the building were stunned to see it flying so low.
"It was insane," said Matt Farney, 39, who was in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot. "It didn't look like he was out of control or anything."
Reginaldo Tiul-Tiul, a dishwasher at the nearby Sushi Sake Japanese Cuisine, said he had just gotten off a bus and was waiting to go into work when he saw the plane crash.
"I looked at my co-worker and said, 'Why is that plane so low?"' Tiul-Tiul, 30, said in Spanish. "It went straight for the building."
Sitting at her desk in another building about a half-mile (less then one kilometer) from the crash, Michelle Santibanez said she felt vibrations. She and her co-workers ran to the windows, where they saw a scene that reminded them of the Sept. 11, 2001 U.S. terror attacks, she said.
"It was the same kind of scenario with window panels falling out and desks falling out and paperwork flying," said Santibanez, an accountant.
The National Transportation Safety Board said an investigator from the board's Dallas office has been dispatched to the scene of the crash. The White House also said President Barack Obama was briefed about the crash.
As a precaution, the Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command launched two F-16 aircraft from Houston's Ellington Field, and is conducting an air patrol over the crash area.
According to California Secretary of State records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's Franchise Tax Board.
In 1985, he incorporated Prowess Engineering Inc. in Corona. It was suspended two years later. He started Software Systems Service Corp. in Lincoln in 1995 and that entity was suspended in 2001. Stack listed himself as chief executive officer of both companies.
Correction: A previous version of this story ran a quote falsely attributed to DHS Spokesman Matt Chandler saying the Austin plane crash was equal to the Fort Hood killings.
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One would think, after 9/11, that it would not be possible to fly a gnat into a government building, let alone a plane. But there you are.
All the degrading inconveniences, and almost total usurpation of civil liberties, the average American now suffers in his daily activities just so he can be kept "safe" and "secure" (Yeah, right. It's about We the People. Sure it is) And some irate Average Joe flies a (albeit, small) PLANE into a GOVERNMENT BUILDING.
CODE RED! CODE RED! Y'all feeling safe, yet?
And, BTW, what's all this anti-Tea Party ranting going on here? The article didn't mention them. Was this guy a member? If so, how do you know? You go to his website and see that? I'll admit, I've not visited it.
So-called "Teabaggers" aren't the right-wing nuts that the minority of you have been told they are. They're the ordinary Americans who are very tired of far more than just being over-taxed. Surely even those of you on the left are tired of being over-taxed? Or do "Progressives" pay fewer taxes than the rest of us?!........................................................
...............................................................
You are incorrect.
The Tea-Baggers are mostly uneducated right-wing nuts or the people
they tend to prey on.
What do you mean "Over-taxed" ??????
Did you vote for the Idiot Himself .... Georgy Bush ???
Well ... even if you were smart enough (I doubt it in your case) to
NOT vote for him, I have news for you, Sparky.
You STILL have to pay for all of the wars he started.
And Pay You Will.
All the degrading inconveniences, and almost total usurpation of civil liberties, the average American now suffers in his daily activities just so he can be kept "safe" and "secure" (Yeah, right. It's about We the People. Sure it is) And some irate Average Joe flies a (albeit, small) PLANE into a GOVERNMENT BUILDING.
CODE RED! CODE RED! Y'all feeling safe, yet?
And, BTW, what's all this anti-Tea Party ranting going on here? The article didn't mention them. Was this guy a member? If so, how do you know? You go to his website and see that? I'll admit, I've not visited it.
So-called "Teabaggers" aren't the right-wing nuts that the minority of you have been told they are. They're the ordinary Americans who are very tired of far more than just being over-taxed. Surely even those of you on the left are tired of being over-taxed? Or do "Progressives" pay fewer taxes than the rest of us?!
No. These ordinary Americans are far more worried about more than taxes and Big Government (although BG is one heckuva lot of the problem!). They're sick and tired of seeing little girls and old women being tasered by the police for no reason; they're shocked by the behavior of the Pittsburgh Police during the G-20 meeting, beating 20-yr-old coeds for expressing an opinion; they're extremely uncomfortable that so many police departments throughout the nation are being militarized (whatever happened to posse comitatus? Whatever happened to Habeus Corpus, for that matter?); They're uncomfortable when they realize so many of our SWAT teams are dressed very, very similarly to Nazi Storm Troopers -- Why? What does it mean, they wonder?; They wonder whatever happened to that 16-year-old boy N.C. who was dragged out of his home in the middle of the night for "terrorism", based on erroneous info (an IP spoof). His mother didn't know where the FBI took him, and she couldn't contact him. He was not permitted a lawyer. HE IS AN AMERICAN. MONTHS later, she found he was being held under the so-called "Patriot Act", sans Habeus Corpus, in Indiana. But we don't know what happened after that. And on and on and on this crap goes . . .
"Teabaggers" are shocked, saddened, and ANGERED by stuff like that. Why aren't you "Progressives"? Why aren't you even AWARE of this stuff?! Why, because average Americans are concerned and worried by stuff like this, do you call them "nuts"?! We ask: WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!
And now you know why so many of us are feeling just a tad ambiguous about this incident with the small plane and the IRS. We're nuts? OK. Better nuts than blind and gutless.
The man was morally wrong. He took innocent lives (although an argument can be made that, if you choose to work for the IRS, you're hardly innocent). But so many of us are fence-sitting on this, ambiguous in our feelings. We KNOW it was wrong (amazing, considering how we've had moral relativity rammed down our throats, now, for decades), but we understand WHY he did it. Perhaps our government, and especially the @#%$! IRS, should sit up and take notice. But we also know they will not. They'll actually have the nerve to whine about how they're "innocent" victims. Uh huh. Here's a quarter, call someone who cares . . .
And they want that so-called "health-care" bill overseen by the IRS! And some of you wonder why the rest of us are against the HC bill! Seriously? One more way for the IRS to decide your property needs a little confiscatin' and your life needs a little destroyin'. Well, what goes around, comes around.
Yes, he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword. The question being debated in these comments, I guess, is, WHO ARE THE ONES WIELDING THE SWORD?
The single person driven, at last, to the end of his rope and his and, sadly, others' lives? Or the government entity that's been routinely driving people to the end of their ropes, and often their lives, for almost a century? If he'd flown into a preschool, there'd be no debate. But he flew into the IRS. There's just so much to feel ambiguous about.
What our Vice President, or perhaps our president of vice stated in his Feb 17 2010 CONFESSIONAL,
"Washington Is Broken" and dysfunctional speech meant,
is that our politico-legal system is too damned complicated to work!
In many ways, it is lawyers who are more than slightly responsible for the complicated ways that society, government, business, and so many aspects of our lives and our existence functions. We are also somewhere between too dependent and extremely dependent, on lawyers and their complex, intentional,
?clarity-sabotaging? lynchpins, that they built in to our system(s), on which they thrive, and by which they continue to bleed us dry.
IN HOW MANY WAYS MUST WE SPELL IT OUT?
Our politico-legal system continues to interfere with and obstruct our everyday affairs, businesses and lives. That makes an increasing number of people frustrated, despondent, angry and desperate.
The rules and regulations by which we are 'held in place' must be changed.
Q: Do we need lawyers, or is the system set up to MAKE US NEED LAWYERS?
The more-than-apparent answer to this chicken or the egg question is:
Whatever preserves lawyers?, retention of power and constant money flow...
...kind of like whatever is good for our elected officials or politicians...
...hardly the people's interests who they supposedly represent - hardly ever - unless of course some issue happen to coincide with theirs!
CONCLUSION:
OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM, OUR LEGISLATIVE/LAW-MAKING SYSTEM, OUR CORPORATE/BUSINESS WORLD, ET AL, ARE INFECTED WITH THE SAME DISEASE
We must replace the controlling grip in which lawyers and politicians continue to hold us, with our own people ? OURSELVES ? taking care of ourselves.
Q: By the way, do you know what lawyers? favorite flavor is?
A: ANYTHING BUT plain vanilla.
"She said, I've had enough," Pawlenty said. "We should take a page out of her playbook and take a 9-iron and smash the window out of big government."
And idiots like Pawlenty can't explain why someone would take their plane and fly it into an IRS building in Austin, effectively "smashing out the windows".
But that pales in comparison to the jokes that are being made at CPAC about the plane attack, while the building hasn't even finished smoking yet.
That is a lot of damage! I wonder if we are going to start a war against Europe now and start sending white people from the South to Guantanamo?
Well they didn't to do anything after Timothy McVeigh, so I guess the answer is "no".
The Homeland Security cheif said "this was not an act of terror". I wonder what it is then?