Small plane crashes into building in Austin

[Fleshdancer]

The Echelon (sp?) building on 183 near the Mopac exit. It's on the major cable networks now...tons of smoke. MSNBC is reporting that the firefighters have been ordered to retreat do to the danger.

Please tell me we don't have any DUers working in this building. :(

[sonias]

1. Austin police say a plane has crashed into a building

AAS 2/18/10
Plane crashes into Northwest Austin office building

Austin-Travis County EMS Assistant Director James Shamard said smoke is visible for at least a mile and that paramedics have set up a triage center at the scene. “We have no idea right now if there are any patients, or how many.”

EMS officials said it was a seven-story building and that two people were unaccounted for.

Tucker Thurman was driving to work on the U.S. 183 flyover near MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) when he said he saw a small plane, very low, flying over the highway. He said he saw it then bank heavily to the right before heading into the building.

“There was a huge fireball. It right into the building,” Thurman said.

I hope everyone makes it. Right now it looks like two people are unaccounted for.

[WolverineDG]

12. 1 sent to Brooke Army burn unit in SA, 1 still missing

according to my cousin who was supposed to go in this morning but went to another site instead.

I just heard the news & had about 5-10 minutes of absolute panic/distraught until I finally got word my cousin was okay.

dg

[sonias]

13. Glad to hear your cousin is fine, dg

The missing person is an IRS collection agent according to AAS news article. I don't think that person made it out.

Sonia

[WolverineDG]

14. Me too

Thanks.

it was hell for the 10 minutes or so it took for me to get a hold of someone who knew something...I came home from poll watching at 5:30 & it was the lead on the news.....first I'd heard about it all day...welcome home, dg. sheesh.

My cousin said it could have been a LOT worse (as in more people injured/dead) but almost everyone was out in the field.


dg

[sonias]

2. Video at KVUE

KVUE 2/17/10
Plane crashes into Northwest Austin building

KVUE’s Noelle Newton reports most of the windows are blown out. People were evacuated. There is so far no word on how many people have been injured. A witness told KVUE that it didn't appear the plane was having any trouble before it crashed.

Firefighters say they have made several rescues, but so far two people are unaccounted for.

Officials said there were reports an FBI field office was housed in the complex, but it was not hit. They say this appears to be accidental. A number of businesses are located in the building that was hit.

[Fleshdancer]

3. cable news bobbleheads now saying pilot set his house on fire first

I'm gonna be really pissed if this turns out to be an act of some douche teabagging libertarian hell bent on destroying govt offices. I hope this isn't the case.

[sonias]

4. Me too!

If this turns out to be a homegrown terrorist ala Timothy McVeigh, then these teabaggers and republicans have kicked up the crazy dial way too far on the right.

:grr:


Sonia

[white cloud]

5. name

The name Joseph Stack is what I am hearing?

[sonias]

8. Joseph Andrew Stack III

Is the owner of the home that burned in the Scofield Farms subdivision area in N. Austin.

But the plane supposedly was stolen from Georgetown airport.

[Melissa G]

6. Person in my class this morning said her landlord was in the office below the floor it crashed into.

He called and talked to her and she gave us the update. They evacuated the bldg, but some people were injured and missing. Authorities were keeping everyone there at the time. This was an hour ago.
Very sad. Another eyewitness who was a pilot said the guy turned the small plane into the bldg full speed, but that was not all that fast being the type of plane it was.
mg

[white cloud]

7. stacks

http://www.businessinsider.com/joseph-andrew-stacks-insane-manifesto-2010-2

[sonias]

9. IRS trouble

AAS 2/18/10
Internet note posted by man linked to plane crash

Thursday, February 18, 2010, 12:16 PM

Editor’s note: We found this note on a Web site being pointed at by social media users. A search showed the domain that the note was posted on is registered to Joe Stack of San Marcos. A man by the same name, who has addresses in both Austin and San Marcos has been linked to today’s airplane crash.

(snip)
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.

(snip)
And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.

(snip)
I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

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 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)

[sonias]

10. Have to give credit where credit is due

I've been watching the local news and I have to say that our local police, firefighters and EMS personnel acted superbly. The training that people in high rise office building got, obviously paid off. People while distraught in this building evacuated the building like they were trained. They were calm and followed instructions. This saved many, many lives.

I'm very proud of our first responders and of the people in this building that helped each other out.

:patriot:

Sonia

[Fleshdancer]

11. Heroes

I'm extremely proud of our first responders today, especially the fire fighters. I honestly don't know how they find the courage to do what they do.

:applause:

[sonias]

20. The story of one hero - Robin De Haven

Yahoo News 1/18/10
Army vet helped rescue people from Texas building

AUSTIN, Texas – Robin De Haven was driving his truck to another job for the glass company he works for when he saw something that didn't look right — a small plane, flying extremely low over a heavily congested area of Austin.

The 28-year-old Iraq war veteran recalled Friday that he then saw black smoke billowing from the office building and rushed to the scene. A pilot furious at the Internal Revenue Service had slammed his plane into the building Thursday where about 200 IRS employees worked, killing himself and one other person.

De Haven said when he pulled up to the burning building he saw five people peeking through the broken glass. He hurled his 17-foot ladder off his truck and onto the building, helping to rescue them as thick smoke poured into the air.

"I wanted to go help," De Haven told The Associated Press. "I thought, 'I'm going to go ahead and do it.' I thought my boss would understand."

Wonderful story of Robin De Haven. Great guy!

:patriot:

[Naked_Ape]

15. Tea Baggers and terrorist wannabes

It was enlightening cruising the Star Telegram comments section this afternoon. Well, maybe disturbing is more the word I was looking for. Majority of posters agreeing with the pilot's motives, thought the manefesto well written, basically calling for revolution. Good times.

[sonias]

17. That is the scary part

The crazy wing is viewing this nut job as a martyr for their cause.

There was another thread on DU where the crazies had created a Facebook fan page for this nut bag with their overused quote "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants"

You can see the screen grab here:
Anti-govt anti-Obama nuts launch Facebook page to honor domestic terrorist

:puke:

[Naked_Ape]

18. pathetic nt

[BrightKnight]

21. .

[sonias]

24. Daughter says pilot in Texas IRS crash was a hero

AAS 2/22/10
Daughter says pilot in Texas IRS crash was a hero
AUSTIN, Texas — The daughter of a man who crashed his small plane into an Internal Revenue Service building called her father a hero for his anti-government views but said his actions, which killed a tax service employee, were "inappropriate."

Joe Stack's adult daughter, Samantha Bell, spoke to ABC's "Good Morning America" from her home in Norway. Asked during a phone interview broadcast Monday if she considered her father a hero, she said: "Yes. Because now maybe people will listen."

(snip)
Bell said she offered her deepest condolences to Hunter's family. She said her father's last actions were wrong.

"But if nobody comes out and speaks up on behalf of injustice, then nothing will ever be accomplished," she told ABC. "But I do not agree with his last action with what he did. But I do agree about the government,"

I think Samantha Bell should stop calling her father a "hero". She is totally wrong. These are the actions of a terrorist. These are the same kinds of words the families of suicide bombers use too. I'm sure those families feel like the "ends justify the means". Problem is they never accomplish their ultimate goal. They simply take innocent lives for no reason. The families are as much too blame as the bombers when they raise and encourage their family member to think violence is an answer.

Sonia

[NoPasaran]

25. This destroys the myth that Stack was an apolitical guy who was screwed over by the IRS

It's already been reported that Stack spoke often with his daughter on the phone. While he may have concealed his political beliefs from people who knew him in the US, clearly he was less circumspect with his daughter, who lives in Norway. I am convinced that a real investigation of this domestic terrorist will reveal him to be an avid consumer of the Alex Jones-Ron Paul politics of alternate reality.

[sonias]

26. I agree

From what I have read about his background he was essentially a tax cheat. Didn't really believe the government had any right to tax his income, so he filed false returns or none at all. This had been going on for decades with this man. Happened in the state of California too. So he hated state government as well. Maybe he should have moved out of the country too.

Is the income tax system in the U.S. completely fair? Probably not. Most of us would agree with that. Big corporations do get away with their perks being tax exempt. That's because they can buy themselves a few congressmen or senators to write them some loopholes. Does this mean we should all go nuts about it. No - absolutely not. We still derive a lot of benefits from living in this country and those are paid for by our tax dollars - whether they are well spent or not.

The best quote I saw on this was someone who said something like "Stack had every right to stand on his anti-tax principles, but if you're going to live like that in the U.S. you're going to be standing on those principles at Levenworth federal prison".
:spank:


Sonia

[Sailing]

27. He was a big time liar too

He claimed to be an engineer, but he only had a high school diploma and dropped out of community college. People like this that start "so called" tech companies, build their wealth only through defrauding the government and who knows who else. This guy should have been locked up years ago.

[sonias]

28. To some, suicide attack on IRS made pilot a hero

Houston Chronicle 2/22/10
To some, suicide attack on IRS made pilot a hero

While most Americans surely see Joseph Stack as an angry, misguided man whose final act was repugnant, his suicide mission has clearly tapped a vein of rage among anti-tax, anti-government extremists.

The way they see it, "he did the ultimate flipping of the bird to the man," said JJ MacNab, a Maryland-based insurance analyst who is writing a book about tax protesters. "He stuck it to the man, and they love that."

It is not surprising Stack would be portrayed as a hero on fringe Web sites such as stormfront.org, a forum for white supremacists. But admirers also are expressing their appreciation on mainstream sites such as Facebook, where a fan page supporting some of the things he said in his six-page manifesto had more than 2,000 members Monday.

(snip)

In Texas, Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina told a San Antonio radio station last week that she did not sympathize with Stack, but that his act reflected "the hopelessness many in our society feel."

(snip)

Asked whether she considered her father a hero, Stack's adult daughter, Samantha Dawn Bell, said during a telephone interview broadcast Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America": "Yes. Because now maybe people will listen." But she stressed that his actions were "inappropriate."

Later, though, in an interview with The Associated Press in Norway, where she lives, she said she does not consider her father a hero. She said she understands her father's animosity toward a "faulty" and "unbalanced" American tax system. But she said he should have found "a completely different way" to address it.

Well I guess she finally decided it wasn't such a good idea to praise her lunatic father as a hero.

Sonia

[onestepforward]

16. Very tragic.

So sad.

[sonias]

19. Vernon Hunter, 67

AAS 1/19/10
Family, friends gather at home of missing man

Family and friends were gathering at the Cedar Park home of Vernon Hunter, 67, this morning after reports that Hunter was missing after Thursday’s tragic plane crash in Northwest Austin.

A family friend who was visiting Hunter’s residence Friday morning said she was not authorized to speak on behalf of the family.

Thursday night, a woman who answered the phone at Hunter’s home said he was missing following the crash.

Hunter is described as a devout Christian, a Vietnam veteran and father of six grown children who loves his white cowboy hat. He and his wife, Valerie, frequently give to charities.

He also is a manager in the collections division for the Internal Revenue Service.

Rest in peace Mr Hunter. My condolences to the Hunter family for their loss.

Sonia

[BrightKnight]

22. I bet that treasonous Perry's secession buddies have a lot to say

about this.

[NoPasaran]

23. They've already said plenty

It's time they start answering for this climate of seditious insanity they're whipping up.

[DuckBurp]

29. I didn't work in that building, but I have friends that did.

Fortunately, they got out safely or were working "in the field." Several of us in other offices were keeping up with the situation until all hands were accounted for. Except for Vernon Hunter, who was killed. The Treasury Secretary and the IRS Commissioner visited the scene of the incident. I am sure that security will increase in offices across the country. But, I don't know what could have been done to prevent this from happening.

[sonias]

30. Glad your friends made it out safely

I'm sure security will increase too, but as you said what can they do to protect against the lunatic who does this?

Even if they required flight plans for small aircraft - he still would have veered off the plan he filed and done this.