Plane crash pilot left anti-IRS Web note
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| Thu, 02-18-2010 - 4:40pm |
Complete article at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011116440_apusplanecrashtexas.html

AP
In this image from KVUE-TV video, smoke billows from a seven-story building after a small private plane crashed into the building Thursday in Austin, Texas.
Official: Plane crash pilot left anti-IRS Web note
By JIM VERTUNO
Associated Press Writer
A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service 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.
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 anti-government message on the Web linked to him. The Web site outlines problems with the IRS and says violence "is the only answer."
Federal law enforcement officials have said they were investigating whether the pilot, who is presumed to have died in the crash, 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.
"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.
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.
Earlier Thursday about five miles 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!'"
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.
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."
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.
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Associated Press writers April Castro, Kelley Shannon and Jay Root in Austin; Devlin Barrett, Joan Lowy and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington; the AP News Research Center, Linda Stewart Ball, Danny Robbins, Jeff Carlton and John McFarland in Dallas; and Barbara Rodriguez and Melanie Coffee in Chicago contributed to this report.
Copyright © The Seattle Times Company






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The manifesto has been taken down, but I was able to copy/paste it on another board, so if you want to read it:
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-psmomspol/?msg=6823.14
He was just a frustrated and (obviously) crazy man. He felt wronged by having to pay back taxes plus penalties and was angry at the bank bailouts. He just had a angry rant, even complaining about how flight rules after 9/11 had hurt his own business. I wondered how bad his life really was, because he still had his private plane and lived in a nice home (which he apparently burned down).
I've heard it said that people were jumping out of buildings the year the Stock Market crashed. Maybe we've come to that point again where desperation (or the perception of desperation) is driving people over the edge. We'll never know what was really going on in this man's life or mind, but it's obvious he felt backed into a corner.
I get angry too when I am forced to pay taxes to a government that does nothing for me. I pay big salaries to politicians, bail out banks, fund wars, and take care of people who are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. It's very frustrating as I sit and do my income taxes for the year and see what the government takes away from me.
When you file your tax return this year think about where your money is going. Think about how you are literally forced to pay taxes and you have no personal voice in how the money is spent. It's probably even more frustrating for someone who has a business and may already be struggling to keep it afloat.
I don't plan on resorting to drastic measures for myself. But, in an offhand way I can kind of understand the man's anger. We're being nickle and dimed to death everywhere we turn, and then the government comes along with its hand out and wants to take what little we have left.
No one mentioning "terrorism"?
Edited 2/19/2010 9:45 am ET by libraone
"Nothing is certain except death & taxes."
I don't mind paying taxes & wouldn't mind paying more for a national health care system.
>"1929, most Americans didn't play the stock market, but kept their savings in banks. It was the failure of so many banks, along with rising unemployment, that caused so much suffering during the early 1930's.
There is no evidence that anyone leapt to their death because of the market crash, although several did shoot themselves. One man decided to end his misery by leaving his gas stove on and then taking a long nap. And then there was the guy who had a heart attack at his broker's office watching the dropping numbers on the ticker tape. The one person reported to jump from an upper floor of the Plaza Hotel in New York City, did so several days before the market tumbled. Will Rogers, the great humorist, picked up on it and included the "jumping out of windows" in his routine for a number of years, and so the legend."<
Segment from.......1929 Stock Market Crash
http://www.atozinvestments.com/1929-stock-market-crash.html
I'd never join the Tea Party either.
I hear ya! I'm 56 and DH is 62. I've been laid off since May, and my DH's last day is February 26. His company is giving a decent severance package, but still, it is still difficult to be unemployed and be "older." Both of us will likely take any job so long as we have a net gain from working (minus cost of commuting, taxes, wardrobe, etc.). To be honest, there just aren't many good jobs out there anymore. For the good jobs, I'm competing against women 30 years younger and I've read that there are like 6 people for every new job out there. Ugh...
One thing that we did which all our friends told us was stupid, was that we never moved up to a bigger, nicer home when they did in the late 90's and 00's. Instead, we paid off our house, and are just making ourselves happy with that part of our lives. Our sons are grown, so there really wouldn't have been many years when a larger home would have been worthwhile anyway. Also, our old minivan has been paid for years ago, so we don't have that hanging over our heads. I totally empathize with your situation and the frustration you feel about planning for the future. Considering what happened to 401K's when the market tanked in 2008, many of us need to catch up for all of our losses there. We can't catch up if we don't have jobs.
Keep on keeping on!
Omigosh, that is terrible!!!
Hey, he was an American...he couldn't have possibly been
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