Pilot crashes plane into IRS building; no terror link seen
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Leaving behind a rant against the government, big business and particularly the tax system, a 53-year-old computer engineer smashed a small aircraft into an office building where nearly 200 employees of the IRS were starting their workday on Thursday morning, the authorities said.
Aside from the death of the pilot himself, identified as Joseph Andrew Stack of North Austin, only two serious injuries were reported in the crash and subsequent fire, which initially inspired fears of a terrorist attack and drew nationwide attention.
But in place of the typical portrait of a terrorist driven by ideology, Stack was described as generally easygoing, a talented amateur musician with marital troubles and a maddening grudge against the tax authorities.
“I knew Joe had a hangup with the IRS on account of them breaking him, taking his savings away,” said Jack Cook, the stepfather of Stack’s wife, in a telephone interview from his home in Oklahoma. “And that’s undoubtedly the reason he flew the airplane against that building. Not to kill people, but just to damage the IRS.”
Within hours of the crash, before the death or even the identity of the pilot had been confirmed, officials ruled out any connection to terrorist groups or causes.
“The main thing I want to put out there is that this is an isolated incident here; there is no cause for alarm,” said the Austin police chief, Art Acevedo, in a televised news conference at midday. Asked how he could be sure, Acevedo said, “You have to take my word at it, don’t you?”
As the Department of Homeland Security opened an investigation and President Barack Obama received a briefing from his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, federal officials emphasized the same message, describing the case as a criminal inquiry.
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the threat of terrorists using airplanes to crash into buildings has raised a special sort of public anxiety, as in 2006, when a Yankees pitcher and his flight instructor died in a crash in Manhattan.
Stack’s aircraft, a single-engine, fixed-wing Piper PA-28-236 registered in California, took off from the Georgetown Municipal Airport, about 25 miles north of Austin, at 9:40 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said.
At 9:56, the plane tore into a seven-story office building at 9430 Research Boulevard, about seven miles northwest of the State Capitol, local authorities said. Flames and smoke engulfed the building, sending big black burned panels to the ground. Emergency medical officials said two men were injured, both in the fire. One was transported to a burn unit in San Antonio. A third office worker was described only as “unaccounted for.”
Aside from the IRS, private organizations including an education center affiliated with St. Edward’s University maintain offices in the building, according to address records. The local office of the FBI is in a separate part of the complex.