A plane crashed into a Northwest Austin building that houses federal offices about 10 this morning, injuring several people and sparking a fire that sent plumes of smoke into the air that could be seen for miles.
A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said the crash, at the Echelon 1 building in the 9400 block of Research Boulevard, was “apparently a criminal act.”
Austin Fire Department Division Chief Dawn Clopton said that the FBI would be taking over the investigation.
The plane, a single-engine Piper Cherokee PA-28-236 Dakota, took off from a Georgetown airport at 9:40 a.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said just after noon.
A federal official confirmed for the Statesman that its tail number is registered to a plane owned by Joseph Andrew Stack, a private plane pilot whose nearby home was on fire at roughly the same time.
The North Austin home was destroyed, but officials have not linked the two incidents.
A note posted on a Web site registered to Stack suggested that Stack was disgruntled with the U.S. tax system.
It is unclear who was piloting the plane when it crashed into the building.
An IRS revenue collection agent who worked on the building’s second floor is missing, said Mark Menn, a 59-year-old field revenue agent who worked in the building. Menn declined to give the man’s name.
Matilda Sanchez, spokeswoman for the Seton Family of Hospitals, said an injured man was admitted to University Medical Center Brackenridge in good condition with minor injuries and smoke inhalation. A second person, whose gender she did not know, was stabilized and airlifted to the burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio in serious condition with burn injuries.
To see more on the condition of the patients, click here.
Authorities have been unable to reach the crash impact site and do not yet know the condition of the pilot, Clopton said.
“That is part of the building that is unstable,” she said. Battalion Chief Palmer Buck said that part of building has collapsed and some steel beams are bowed down.
The pilot did not file a flight plan or, as far as FAA officials know at this time, have any other contact with the agency.
The Internal Revenue Service has offices in the building, including its civil enforcement and criminal investigations divisions, said Special Agent Michael Lemoine, a spokesman for the criminal investigations division.
He said that some IRS offices are on the first floor, which Lemoine said was hit by the plane.
He said that the criminal investigations division personnel are safe and accounted for. He did not have information on the civil division workers, who conduct audits and other activity at the offices.
William Winnie, an Internal Revenue Service agent, said he was in a training session on the third floor of the building when he saw a light-colored, single-engine plane coming at the building.
“It looked like it was coming right in my window,” Winnie said. He said the plane veered down and to the left and crashed into the floors below. “I didn’t lose my footing, but it was enough to knock people who were sitting to the floor.”
To read more witness accounts, click here.
At a 12:30 p.m. press conference, Police Chief Art Acevedo said local police are working with federal authorities on the investigation. “The investigation is fluid and ongoing,” Acevedo said.
Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell praised the response of emergency officials.
“I want to assure the citizens of Austin, Texas, that they are safe. There is no danger. The situation is totally contained,” Leffingwell said.
Mischelle Diaz, a spokeswoman for St. Edward’s University, said the plane hit next to a building where the university’s Professional Education Center provides software training and teaches some graduate students. She said the education center has been evacuated and that university officials were trying to confirm that students and instructors all got out safely.
“We’re just desperately trying to get some information,” Diaz said.
The American Red Cross of Central Texas will be providing food and water to the firefighters and investigators at the crash site, said spokeswoman Marty McKellips.
They are also calling in mental health professionals to tend to crash survivors. Many people are shaken up and there are still some people missing, she said.
Over at Planck's Constant Bernie has a piece about a recent assassination that took place in Dubai (by the way, if you have not been to Planck's Constant, check it out... Bernie is one of the better Internet writers so you won't get bored.) I was somewhat fascinated by the surveillance cameras that recorded the antemortem and postmortem events from setup to completion and yet the culprits all got away clean. You can read Bernie's entire piece by clicking here. ~ Norman E. Hooben
