February 19, 2010 by mosaiconline

Pilot’s Online Suicide Note Blasts IRS

By: Bill Miller and Dave Montgomery/McClatchy Newspapers/MCT
Posted In: News

AUSTIN, Texas – In a rambling, obscenity-laced suicide note posted online, the pilot accused of flying his plane into an Austin office building Thursday takes aim at the Internal Revenue Service, religion, big business and even former President George W. Bush.

A man identified as Joe Stack, 53, of Austin flew his small, single-engine airplane from a Georgetown, Texas, airport and then crashed it into an office complex in northwest Austin about 25 miles away, reports said. Officials also believe he set his own house ablaze.

“I remember reading about the stock market crash before the ‘great’ depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything,” according to the online note, dated Feb. 18, 2010, and signed “Joe Stack, (1956-2010).”

“Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s ‘business-as-usual.’

“Now when the wealthy f— up, the poor get to die for the mistakes … isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.”

Stack, who is presumed dead, described himself in the note as a software engineer and blamed the government, the IRS and accountants for his business problems.

Violence, he wrote, “not only is the answer, it is the only answer.”

At least two people were taken to the hospital from the burning building, and officials were looking for one other person who was unaccounted for.

Thick black and gray smoke was billowing out of the second and third stories of the building Thursday as fire crews using ladder trucks and hoses battled the fire. Dozens of windows were blown out of the hulking black building, and vehicles traveling on a nearby highway paused to look.

Quoting a federal official, CNN reported that the pilot had torched his home before taking off in the plane. Public records show the home was located in the 1800 block of Dapplegrey Lane.

The airplane involved is a Piper PA-28-236 that is registered to Stack.

The seven-story office building, described as the Echelon building, is about six miles southwest of Stack’s home in northwest Austin. The crash occurred about 10 a.m. CST.

A federal official said two F-16 fighter jets were launched as a precaution after the crash, though a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said there is no reason to believe that terrorism was involved.

Initial reports were that the Austin field office of the San Antonio FBI was in the building, but it was later learned that the FBI offices are in a nearby building. The building does contain offices of the Internal Revenue Service where about 190 people work, according to reports.

In the online note, Stack says he lived in southern California, worked as a “contract software engineer,” and had been divorced and remarried. He says that he moved to Austin to try his luck but ended up finding no work. He even blames the FAA for costing him business by grounding air traffic after 9-11, preventing him from calling on clients.

The note ends: “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.”

Firefighters received the report of the crash at about 9:56 a.m. Thursday and arrived on the scene within four minutes, authorities said.

About 60 firefighters battled the blaze after the crash, said Austin Fire Battalion Chief Palmer Buck.

Crews have been pulled out of the building, Buck said.

“It’s a pretty dangerous mission,” Buck said.

Buck said the building would be closed for quite awhile.

An access road in front of the building also remained closed, Buck said.

Police Chief Art Acevedo said the person who was unaccounted for was scheduled to be at work Thursday, but he had no other information. He noted, however, that initial reports that the pilot had stolen the plane were incorrect and he confirmed that the man owned it.

Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who works in the Echelon building, said she was sitting at her desk when the plane crashed.

“It felt like a bomb blew off. The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran,” she said.

Matt Farney, who was in the parking lot of a nearby Home Depot, said he saw a low-flying private plane near some apartments and the office building just before it crashed.

“I figured he was going to buzz the apartments or he was showing off,” Farney said, adding that the plane dipped down. “It was a ball of flames that was high or higher than the apartments. It was surreal. It was insane. … It didn’t look like he was out of control or anything.”

Michelle Santibanez was sitting at her desk about a half-mile from the crash when she felt vibrations. She and her co-workers ran to the windows, where they saw a scene that reminded them of the 2001 terrorist attacks, she said.

“It was the same kind of scenario with window panels falling out and desks falling out and paperwork flying,” said Santibanez, an accountant.
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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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GRAPHIC (from MCT Graphics, 202-383-6064): 20100218 Texas plane