Kamikaze Small Plane Pilot Hits Tampa's Tallest Building

newsmax.com ^

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

A fifteen-year-old student pilot apparently trying to recreate the 9/11 kamikaze attack on the World Trade Center slammed a stolen Cessna 172 private airplane Saturday into Tampa, Florida's Bank of America building, the city's tallest structure.

Charles J. Bishop, a 15-year-old flight student from Great Britain, stole the small aircraft from Albert Whitted Municipal Airport in nearby St. Petersburg at about 5 p.m., law enforcement sources said.

Bishop was killed as the Cessna carrying 56 gallons of fuel slammed into the Bank of America tower, leaving the tail section of the plane dangling precariously from its side.

The fuel did not ignite, though authorities remain concerned over the potential for a Twin Tower-like conflagration.

Despite sharing national origin with American Airlines shoe bomber Richard Reid and attempting to mimic the 9/11 hijackers, the FBI said Bishop's stunt had no connection to terrorism.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was in pursuit of Bishop's plane after being alerted by local air traffic controllers of the unauthorized take off. Witnesses said the plane made no effort to avoid the Tampa skyscraper as the Coast Guard chopper crew frantically signaled it to land at a nearby Tampa airport.

The plane's wings tore from the fuselage when it struck the 23rd and 24th floors, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.

Bishop, a student at East Lake High School in Palm Harbor, Florida who had taken flying classes for two years, was at the airport with his mother and grandmother performing a pre-flight check when he got into the plane and unexpectedly took off, Pinellas County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Greg Tita said.

[lmr]

Glad this f*g didn't hurt anyone other than his sorry *ss. I would attribute this whole incident to America Hating/Islamic Extremism.

[JimRed]

That plane should have been shot down.

That also would be a no-win for the guard...it might have hit a home, a store, a school, a church, etc. and then the loony left would be shrieking about how the trigger happy military killed whatever number of folks as well as the poor misguided "youth".

[monkeyshine]

I'm skeptical, but understand your point. Perhaps we can just start by revoking permission for non-citizens to fly and having the FAA mandate some new rules for access to small crafts.

[D2BAH]

I disagree. A guy could run out of fuel over a town and be headed for an open area--like a city park-- attempting to make a survivable forced landing. He could be (illegally) buzzing some pal in an office of the building. He could be lost and looking for ANYTHING to identfy what town he was over. This kid may not have even had a radio turned on--and if he did, likely not to the frequency where he could hear instructions from the pursuers. There'd be hell to pay if the military started shooting down every puddlejumper (like my 150) that happened to appear as if it was attacking some structure. And you'd rather have rockets and machine guns going off, ordinance putting holes in things, and pieces of flaming airplane raining down over town? C'mon--use some common sense.

[Tennessee_Bob]

They should have shot down the plane the moment they saw what its intended destination was.

And they realized his intentions when? Most likely just before he hit the building. And they should have shot him down with what? It was a Coast Guard helo that was following him, and likely it wasn't armed.

Let's imagine for a minute that the helo was armed, most likely with M-60s. The crew pulls alongside the aircraft and begins firing short, controlled bursts. Not all the rounds are going to hit the aircraft, some will fall into the city below, possibly causing death or injury on the ground. Now, they've killed the pilot, the aircraft wings over into the neighborhood below, possibly causing more death, injuries and damage.

Maybe they should have launched F-15s or F-16s to intercept him. Even more potential for additional damage. Seeing as how the Cessna can fly well below the stall speeds of the fighters, they would have been hardpressed to maintain contact with him (maybe that's why they sent a helo). How easy would it have been to get an infrared lock on the Cessna engine? Probably pretty difficult, and a radar lock against a low-level aircraft is a difficult thing too, especially when you're talking about trying to lock up a Cessna. So, maybe you're locked, maybe you're not, and you launch a missile, only to watch it lose the lock and go into the ground. Not good. But hey...we've got guns. Twenty millimeter cannons, in fact. So, out of the 20 round burst you fire, 10 of the rounds hit the Cessna and shred it. It falls apart and into a neighborhood. The other ten rounds continue on into the city a couple miles away. Oh, and the first ten rounds...a few of them continue on as well, because that Cessna barely slowed them down.

[goldstategop]

That's a sensible suggestion. What the f*ck is the FAA thinking in allowing non-citizens to continue student pilot flight practice AFTER Sept. 11th? It should have been revoked permanently. And now thanks to the FAA's lapse of foresight we had a repeat of Sept. 11th. Yeah the same FAA that couldn't keep Richard Reid off that transatlantic flight.

[Post Toasties]

Fifteen year old non-citizens, at any rate. I find it amazing that supposed flight professionals would give untrained kids unsupervised access to planes particularly around urban neighborhoods and when they are not US nationals.

[Tennessee_Bob]

we had a repeat of Sept. 11th

Where? Tampa? One person dead, the building still standing. Hardly September 11.

Yeah the same FAA that couldn't keep Richard Reid off that transatlantic flight.

And the FAA is responsible for security in French airports in what way??

[Snoopers-868th]

Good point! What a big mess a jet airliner would make. What do you suppose they would have done over NY if they had caught up to them--it would have been a different kind of mess?

Suppose we now need machine guns or some rockets at the airports so they can shoot them on the runway. Actually I think it shows just how helpless we all are and have been.

I say tighten the borders....and have said it for years. Travel visas only, require application for citizenship upon entry of any other type of visa, know English prior citizenship (no citizenship in reasonable time=deportation) and force immigrants to give up all other citizenships. Make citizenship mean something again.

[Rokke]

Hey tough guy. Do you think the Guard "idiots" should shoot down every airplane they've intercepted since September 11? Do you even have any idea how many suspicious aircraft have been intercepted since Sept 11? I didn't think so. If even half of them had been shot down, there would be burning piles of wreckage in cities all over America. Maybe you'd like to use some of your brilliant insight to explain the destructive effects of a supersonic missile with a highly explosive warhead spraying thousands of pieces of shrapnel over a city. Or maybe you'd rather see about 200 rounds of high explosive incindiary 20mm bullets spray all over Tampa. All to take out a cessna that barely managed to break its way through a couple windows. It's a good thing that the true idiots like you are armed with little more than a keyboard.

[sheik yerbouty]

Maybe Reed had too much ganja.

[GeronL]

that kind of common sense will not make friends out of those who panic at the slightest provocation. Not that they don't have a good reason to be jumpy, but some rational thoughts might make some of them angry. =o)

[Tennessee_Bob]

Dadgummit, you're right. I forgot to turn on the commonsense kill filter before I came to Free Republic. Maybe I'll just turn it on permanently and run around panicking from now on. Looks almost like it could be fun...

[GeronL]

I live in Irving, suburb of D/FW airport. The sight of low flying planes are not uncommon (taking off/landing), so maybe I understand why we haven't been issued anti-aircraft weapons.

BTW- why does the airport have the power of imminent domain over my town??

[jmp702]

and run around panicking

LOL. They're not running around. They're under the bed with a flashlight and their notebook; dripping perspiration causing their fingers to slip off the keys.

[goldstategop]

Or would you rather see another another plane explode catastrophically into a building creating even LARGER loss of life? Imagine the fireball if that 56 gallon tank had exploded on impact. I don't want to even think about it. At least if it hits the ground its possible to minimize fatalities. Nothing in life is completely risk free and the best way to avoid future incidents is convince any one trying it they won't get very far if they're airbone.

[xm177e2]

Hmm, it looks like he hit the corner of the building, just like Mohammed Atta, when he aimed his plane. What a creepy kid.

[jmp702]

"All right, any of you yahoos who thinks he's going to committ suicide had better think twice about it. You try something like that and I guarantee you, you will be shot!"

[goldstategop]

Between the floors. He actually thought he'd take the whole building down around him like in "Gottadamerung."