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Police: Body found in Wal-Mart parking lot not considered suspicious
A deceased body has been found in a vehicle in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store at MoPac Boulevard and U.S. 290, but an Austin police official said the death is not considered suspicious.
He said the person’s death appears to be medically related.
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Officials: Few details available on plane crash
Federal and local emergency officials said at a news conference this afternoon it could be a while before many details are known about yesterday’s plane crash into a Northwest Austin building that housed Internal Revenue Service offices and several businesses.
Officials with the FBI, the Austin police, fire and EMS said an investigation is continuing into the plane crash, which killed two people and injured several others.
Ralph Diaz, special agent in charge of the San Antonio division of the FBI, which includes Austin, said Andrew Joseph Stack has been preliminarily identified as the person piloting the aircraft, but “until forensic identification is done, it remains to be seen who in fact it was.”
Diaz said two bodies have been identified in the remains of the office building at 9430 Research Blvd., but he did not name the victims.
Austin police Chief Art Acevedo stopped short of calling the incident an act of terror, saying that he didn’t want people panicking.
“I was hesitant to use that because I did not want to create panic when it was one guy, one city and one event,” Acevedo said.
Officials said that they had not yet determined whether a suspicious package was left in Stack’s vehicle at Georgetown airport, which some reports had indicated.
Stack’s home was destroyed in a fire yesterday morning that was first reported before the plane struck the building.
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Suspected pilot’s wife: “Words cannot adequately express my sorrow”
In a press conference this afternoon on the street where Andrew Joseph Stack III is suspected of burning down his own house before flying a small plane into a North Austin office building, his wife issued a statement through a spokesperson expressing her sympathy for those affected and declining to speak further on the matter.
“Words cannot adequately express my sorrow or the sympathy I feel for everyone affected by this unimaginable tragedy,” Stack’s wife, Sheryl, said in a statement read by family spokesman Rayford Walker. He was standing near the family’s North Austin house, which was gutted by fire a short time before Stack’s plane took off Thursday morning.
“Due to the ongoing investigation related to this tragedy, I feel it best to make no comment beyond this statement, and to not repond to questions of any nature,” the statement said.
Photo: Laura Skelding AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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Stack cleared FAA medical exam last year
The pilot who is believed to have crashed his plane into an Austin office building Thursday had passed a federal required medical and physical exam as recently as last year, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.
Andrew Joseph Stack, whose body is believed to be in the wreckage of the plane, had had his aviation medical certificate renewed in 2009.
All general aviation pilots are required to have two FAA documents with them every time they fly, a pilot’s certificate and a medical certificate, according to Chris Dancy, a spokesman with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. The pilot’s certificate, once obtained from the FAA, does not expire, Dancy said.
A third-class medical certificate of the type typical for a pilot flying his own plane for personal use, on the other hand, is good for only two years after a pilot passes 40 years of age, Dancy said. Stack was 53. Pilots with higher grade medical certificates (first class and second class, required for pilots who are paid to fly strangers from place to place) have different requirements.
To get a third-class certificate renewed, Dancy said, pilots have to pass an examination administered by doctors designated and trained by the FAA to make such judgments. This examination includes a physical, listing of all drugs taken by the pilot and answers to a list of questions, which includes queries about mental health.
“Obviously, you have to disclose a medication that’s most often prescribed for depression, for instance, that’s going to be a trigger to the FAA medical certificate bureau that that needs to be looked into,” Dancy said. “And they can deny a medical certificate for a number of reasons.”
At this point, it is not known if Stack was on any such medication or was undergoing any sort of mental health treatment. In any case, he was medically cleared by the FAA last year.
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Traffic down to one lane on Mopac near Braker Lane
All but one lane of southbound Mopac has been shut down near Braker Lane because of a two vehicle crash. It was first reported around 11:20 a.m. police say.
Austin police said no major injuries were reported.
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Family, friends gather at home of missing man
Family and friends were gathering at the Cedar Park home of Vernon Hunter, 67, this morning after reports that Hunter was missing after Thursday’s tragic plane crash in Northwest Austin.
A family friend who was visiting Hunter’s residence Friday morning said she was not authorized to speak on behalf of the family.
Thursday night, a woman who answered the phone at Hunter’s home said he was missing following the crash.
Hunter is described as a devout Christian, a Vietnam veteran and father of six grown children who loves his white cowboy hat. He and his wife, Valerie, frequently give to charities.
He also is a manager in the collections division for the Internal Revenue Service.
This morning, several television media trucks were parked along the quiet Cedar Park street at the Hunter’s two-story, red brick home.
Neighbor Robert Foster has known Hunter since their section of the Cypress Creek neighborhood was built in 1996.
“He was a kind person,” Foster said. “He was easy to talk to. There was no maliciousness in him.”
Foster said he and Hunter would lend each other their tools and would frequently talk in front of their homes as they were doing yard work. He said Hunter liked to work in the yard.
Once, Hunter was cleaning out his dryer vent when a bird’s nest fell to the ground.
“He said, ‘Had I known there (were) birds in there, I would’ve let it go and not cleaned it out,’” Foster said. “He was sensitive enough to be concerned about creatures.”
Officials have said two bodies were recovered from the building that was hit by a small plane Thursday morning.
FBI spokesman Erik Vasys had said one of the bodies recovered from the building was believed to be that of suspected pilot Andrew Joseph Stack.
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Crash site road to remain close until at least Sunday
The southbound front road of U.S. 183, closed in front of the plane crash site south of Loop 360 since Thursday’s plane crash at an office building alongside the road, likely will remain closed for another 48 hours, Texas Department of Transportation spokesman John Hurt said today. Federal investigators estimate they will need that much more time with exclusive access to the site, Hurt said, before allowing TxDOT crews to move in and clear the debris.
Hurt said that, subject to a change in plans by the FBI and other investigators, TxDOT would probably move in Sunday morning to clear the frontage road. Under that scenario, Hurt said the road would be open long before Monday morning rush hour.
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Army veteran and glass worker helped rescue five people
The five people trapped in the burning Echelon I building Thursday morning after a plane struck couldn’t have asked for a better-prepared hero than Robin De Haven.
De Haven is 28 and has worked for Austin’s Binswanger Glass for two years, installing and repairing glass. He said he also served as a combat engineer in the Army for more than six years, serving two tours in Iraq. And he happened to be right around the corner from the building when the plane struck and have a tall ladder on his work truck.
He said he was driving on Loop 360 on his way to a job in North Austin when he saw the plane fly over the road, then bank and disappear behind a hill.
Then he saw black smoke rising. So he drove toward the smoke.
De Haven said he drove into a parking lot and called 911 about 30 seconds after the plane struck the building. Then he said someone approached him, told him people were trapped inside the burning building and asked if he had a ladder.
De Haven said he grabbed the 20-foot ladder off his truck and ran toward the building. When he tried to put the ladder against the building to reach people on the second floor, the bottom of the ladder began sliding on broken glass, he said.
He said he climbed up anyway — the ladder slipped about four inches on the way — and reached the second floor, crawling through a broken window.
“I was just thinking about what I had to do,” he said.
Inside, he found five people in a room filled with cubicles. “It’s okay, we’re here to get you,” he said he told the people.
They wanted to know what happened to the building, and told him they couldn’t exit through the hallway because it was filled with smoke, De Haven said.
De Haven said he was worried about people descending the unstable ladder, so they decided to try exiting another window. He said he was going to throw a chair through the window, but one of the employees had already tried that, without success.
He said someone found a metal rod, and one of the men began using it to beat on the window, which shattered on the third try. De Haven said he cleared the broken glass from the window frame, then helped the four men and one woman climb out onto a ledge that was about two feet long and four feet wide. Someone on the ground moved the ladder to the ledge, allowing everyone to safely climb down, he said.
By then emergency crews had arrived and took over — Austin Fire Department officials said firefighters saw a Binswanger employee and a ladder at the scene — and De Haven got back in his truck and left the scene. He said he stopped at a fast food restaurant to wash his hands, and his boss called. He told his boss what had happened, and before long, his phone began ringing with interview requests.
By the end of the day, he’d been interviewed by Wolf Blitzer at CNN, FOXNews’s Greta Van Susteren and several local TV stations.
He said he didn’t feel like a hero when it happened, but “now I’m starting to feel like it, because people are telling me that I was one,” he said.
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Dripping Springs man pleads guilty to manufacturing methamphetamine
From the Hays County Justice Center:
Charles Leslie Gault, of Dripping Springs, Texas, pled guilty to two Felony charges of Manufacturing Methamphetamine for which he will serve 22 years in prison.
In both cases, Gault set up his methamphetamine lab in a small “pop-up” type trailer. When law enforcement noticed a strong odor of chemicals in the air and saw a substance boiling in a glass beaker, they called a Hazardous Materials Team (HAZMAT) and other emergency response teams to disassemble the lab due to the danger of deadly poisonous gases and explosions.
When Gault was charged with the first manufacturing case in 2007 he went on the run before he could be sentenced. In 2009, when he was caught with a meth lab for the second time, he ran from deputies before he could even be arrested. He was finally apprehended four days later when he was caught in Williamson County for possessing chemicals to manufacture methamphetamine.
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Chilly, quiet at dawn near plane crash site
There was more than the usual chill in the air during my early morning bike ride today.
I followed my typical route, which includes a section of Jollyville Road in Northwest Austin along the complex of buildings where a small plane crashed Thursday in what authorities suspect was an intentional act.
Police had part of Jollyville blocked off to all but local traffic. Yellow tape was strung here and there, but a sturdier barrier is about to be installed: A flatbed truck carrying a load of portable chainlink fencing pulled into the complex just before dawn.
Austin Fire Department trucks and an American Red Cross truck were parked near the damaged building. Satellite TV trucks were lined up in a parking lot along Research Boulevard, and the reporters shivered in the damp air as they prepared to deliver their live broadcasts. Otherwise, all was quiet.
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Two bodies recovered at crash site, officials say
UPDATE: IRS employee Vernon Hunter, 67, is missing, and his family fears that he is the missing person, according to a woman who answered the phone Thursday night at the Hunter residence in Cedar Park. She said she was a close family friend but declined to identify herself.
Officials said two bodies have been recovered from the Northwest Austin building that was hit by a small plane this morning.
The Austin Fire Department sent a press release tonight saying that it “has concluded its search of the building and located the remains of two victims. Identities have not been confirmed. AFD will have ongoing operations at the site throughout the night, putting out hot spots and watching for any fire flare ups.”
FBI spokesman Eric Vasys said tonight that one body had been recovered from the building earlier in the day, and that it is believed to be that of suspected pilot Andrew Joseph Stack. Vasys said the body was sent to forensic evidence specialists for confirmation.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo confirmed that a body was recovered this afternoon, but he could not confirm whether it was the pilot or a missing federal employee.
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Several people injured when plane hits Northwest Austin building
A small 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.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the crash, at the Echelon 1 building in the 9400 block of Research Boulevard, “appears to be an intentional act, appears to be by a sole individual, and it appears this individual was targeting federal offices inside that building.”
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.
A federal official confirmed for the Statesman that its tail number is registered to a plane owned by Andrew Joseph 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 confirmed that the two incidents are connected.
It is unclear who was piloting the plane when it crashed into the building, but an FBI agent said all indications are that Stack was piloting the plane.
A note posted on a Web site registered to Stack suggested that Stack was disgruntled with the U.S. tax system.
The Georgetown airport had been shut down and evacuated about 12:30 p.m., Georgetown police Lt. Todd Turbush said, though he did not have details on why. A dispatcher with the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office said emergency officials were investigating Stack’s car, which he had left at the airport.
Flights there were to resume about about 5:15 p.m., said an official with the Austin-Travis County Emergency Operations Center who did not wish to be named.
Austin Fire Department Division Chief Dawn Clopton said that the FBI would be taking over the investigation. An FBI agent who declined to identify himself said the agency is investigating the incident as an assault on a federal officer.
Officials said 13 people were treated at the scene, mostly with burns and heat-related injuries. Two were critically injured and transported to area hospitals.
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. The man was later discharged.
Sanchez said a second man was admitted in serious condition with burns, then transported to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
A second hospitalized patient was identified by the Texas Comptroller’s office one of its employees, 38-year-old Shane Hill. The comptroller’s office said Hill was at the Echelon building for work, but did not elaborate.
“The thoughts and prayers of Texas Comptroller Susan Combs and her agency are with Shane Hill and his family,” the office said in a written statement.
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.
Federal investigators said two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from Houston as a precaution, but were returned after initial details showed no terrorist connection to the crash.
“At this time, we have no reason to believe there is a nexus to terrorist activity. We continue to gather more information, and are aware there is additional information about the pilot’s history,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The Internal Revenue Service has offices in the Echelon 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.
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.
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.
Photos: Plane crashes into North Austin building
Photos: Crews respond to North Austin house fire
Video: Scene from the North Austin plane crash
Photo: Claudia Grisales/American-Statesmana
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Pilot was in Austin band, described as kind and quiet
When he wasn’t working as an engineer in the high-tech field or battling the IRS, Joe Stack was a mild-mannered bass player in an Austin alt-country band, according to friends.
He had moved to Austin from California in about 2004 and re-married here in 2007, according to court records and previous versions of his Web site for his company, Embedded Art.
Stack, 53, lived in a 2,500-square-foot house in the Scofield Farms neighborhood in North Austin, near Metric Boulevard and Parmer Lane, with wife Sheryl and her daughter, who is about 12, according to friends, neighbors and county records.
There his wife taught piano lessons and bandmates gathered to practice for gigs.
Officials believe that Stack set that house on fire today before flying his small airplane into an office building on Research Boulevard that houses about 200 Internal Revenue Service Employees.
A note posted on embeddedart.com, a Web site registered to Stack, suggested that Stack was disgruntled with the U.S. tax system. “Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man…take my pound of flesh and sleep well,” the note said.
The note is a rambling complaint about the tax system, organized religion and corporations. It reveals that Stack has been frustrated with what he believes is the system’s lack of fairness for at least two decades.
Michael Cerza, who played drums in the Billy Eli Band with Stack, said, “my impression of Joe was a kind, quiet, not at all brooding … person.”
“I didn’t sense anything boiling under the surface. There was no indication in his actions or his words that he would harm anyone.”
While the members of the band all had day jobs, the Billy Eli Band has played gigs around town at places like the Lucky Lounge and Trophy’s.
Jim Hemphill, also a member of the band, said he is in shock.
“I never saw anything like this in Joe,” he said.
Update: An earlier version of this blog had an incorrect URL for the web site EmbeddedArt.com.
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Burned house, plane crash linked to same person
Fire crews responded this morning to a fire at the home of a person who owned a plane that crashed into a Northwest Austin office building.
The house, in the 1800 block of Dapplegrey Lane close to Parmer Lane and Metric Boulevard, was owned by Andrew Joseph Stack, records show.
There were no injuries in the blaze, and the house is total loss, officials said.
Neighbors said they heard a loud noise that sounded like a car crash at about 9:15 a.m. and soon saw flames coming from house.
Neighbor Elbert Hutchins said he ran to the house while calling 911 and saw flames coming out of an upstairs window. Soon he saw a woman and a girl drive up in a car.
Neighbors believe that was Stack’s wife and daughter, who is about 12 years old.
The two are now believed to be in a neighbor’s house being assisted by the Red Cross. When reporters went to the door, an FBI agent answered.
A Red Cross spokewoman would only say they are assisting two people who are “remarkably calm, clearly distraught.” She said they are “physically fine.”
Dane Vick, whose home is behind Stack’s house, said he called 911 to report the house fire. He described it as an explosion. “I heard a humongous boom,” he said.
Vick said he went to the house and yelled, “Anyone in there. Everyone OK?”
“There was no movement,” he said.
He described the neighborhood as being made up of professionals and families.
Joseph Strazza, 22-year-old contractor, said he was driving down Metric Boulevard when he saw smoke coming out of the eaves of the house.
He parked behind house, he said, then heard an explosion.
“It sounded like a small bomb going off,” Strazza said. He said the windows blew out and flames started coming out of the roof.
Strazza said he then saw a man running out of house with little girl in his arms. Fire crews arrived a short time later, Strazza said.
Stack’s home was a two-story brick home with two-car garage on a tree-lined street. Officials still have the street cordoned off. The house was gutted by the fire.
Photos: Crews respond to North Austin house fire
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Note posted to man linked to plane crash shows anger at IRS
A note posted on a Web site registered to Andrew Joseph Stack, the man linked to this morning’s plane crash, suggested that Stack was disgruntled with the U.S. tax system.
The building that was hit by the plane on Research Boulevard houses many of Austin’s IRS operations, including civil and criminal investigators.
“Well Mr. Big Brother IRS man…. Take my pound of flesh and sleep well,” is the Web browser title on embeddedart.com, the site registered to Stack.
The New Jersey-based Web host that served “EmbeddedArt.com” says it took down the site at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. To see the full story, click here.
The note, which is about six pages of text when printed, begins: “If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, ‘Why did this have to happen?’”
What follows is a rambling complaint about the tax system, how it affects organized religion and corporations, and how at several turns it has derailed Stack’s professional career as a software engineer.
The note says that during the early 1980s Stack participated with others in “tax code readings and discussions” that focused on tax exemptions, such as ones that “make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy.”
“We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the ‘best’, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the ‘big boys’ were doing,” the note says.
The note went on to say: “That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie.”
The note does not say what happened to cause those results.
Stack then went to engineering school and later began working as a software engineer, according to the note. Later, the note says, a 1986 tax law setting out new rules for engineers essentially “declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave.”
Stack writes about working 100-hour work weeks in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, a divorce years later, the dot-com bust and September 11.
“Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity,” the note says.
Security alerts “made access to my customers prohibitively expensive,” the note says, offering no further explanation.
“Ironically, after what they had done the government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY!” the note says. Again, there is no further explanation of the complaint.
While there is no reference as to the year, Stack then sought a change in Austin, the note says.
“So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done,” the note says. “I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work.
At one point, the note says, Stack failed to file a tax return because he had no income. “The sleazy government decided they disagreed,” the note says. “Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.”
The note says that recently Stack was audited after a tax preparer neglected to report some of “Sheryl’s” unreported income.
“That left me … trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax related,” the note says. “The end result is… well, just look around.”
The note then says that the Federal Aviation Administration is often justifiably called a tombstone agency, calls President George W. Bush a “puppet,” and said “nothing changes unless there is a body count.”
“I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at ‘big brother”’ while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.”
According to IRS bankruptcy court records, Stack was employed by DAC International, an Austin company on McNeil Drive that sells avionics technology.
In March 2009, Stack was owed two days back pay, accrued vacation, and money from an employer savings match plan, according to the court records.
A woman who answered the phone at DAC confirmed Stack was an employee but said she had no comment before hanging up the phone.
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One burn victim airlifted to San Antonio burn unit
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 was stabilized and airlifted to the burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio in serious condition with burn injuries.
She said she heard reports of other wounded people walking around at the scene.
Sanchez did not provide the names of the patients received at Brackenridge.
Sarah Scott, chief administrative officer of the Travis County medical examiner’s office, which investigates and performs autopsies, said at 11:30 a.m. that it had not been called to the scene.
Dr. Christopher Ziebell, the medical director of Brackenridge’s emergency department, said the two patients worked in the building that was struck.
He said the man who was taken to San Antonio received second-degree burns over 20 percent to 25 percent of his body, mostly on his back. Based on the injuries, Ziebell said, doctors expect him to recover fully.
Jennifer Rodriguez, a spokeswoman at Brooke Army Medical Center, said the patient is in stable condition.
The second patient was treated for smoke inhalation and left the emergency room around 1 p.m., before doctors could finish their observations of him, hospital officials said.
Ziebell said the man called the crash a “scary moment” and that he was blessed to have survived.
Ziebell said the hospital was able to get an early start on preparing — calling in extra staff, closing the hospital to non-trauma EMS traffic and freeing up extra beds — because a colleague at Seton Northwest Hospital witnessed the crash and called Ziebell this morning.
“We really ramped up for something extraordinary,” he said, adding that he was surprised they received only two patients and no other hospitals have seen any. “You look at the building and at the situation and you really do expect to see more (patients).”
The hospital returned to normal operations at 11:30 a.m. when it became clear that the expected influx of victims was not going to materialize, Ziebell said.
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Official: Crash was ‘apparently a criminal act’
A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said the crash was “apparently a criminal act” and that in such a case the FBI would be the lead investigating agency rather than the National Transportation Safety Administration.
“The NTSB investigates accidents,” said Paul Turk, assistant director of public affairs for the FAA.
A federal official confirmed for the Statesman that the tail number of the Piper Cherokee plane is registered to a plane owned by Joseph Andrew Stack, the private plane pilot whose nearby home was on fire at roughly the same time..
The Federal Aviation Administration previously said the plane departed from an airport in Georgetown before crashing.
The pilot of the plane that crashed did not file a flight plan or, as far as FAA officials know at this time, have any other contact with the agency.
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About the Piper Cherokee plane that crashed
The plane that crashed into a Northwest Austin office building today was a Piper Cherokee PA-28-236 Dakota, a discontinued single-engine plane first produced in 1977.
According to risingup.com, an aviation Web site, the 236 Dakota has four seats, 235 horsepower and a top speed of 148 knots. That’s about 170 miles per hour.
It carries a maximum of 72 gallons of fuel, weighs about 3,000 pounds fully loaded and has a range of 650 miles. The plane is just under 25 feet long and just over seven feet high.
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Plane that crashed registered to Stack
The tail number of the Piper Cherokee plane that crashed into a Northwest Austin building this morning is the same as the number that is registered to a plane owned by Joseph Andrew Stack.
A federal official confirmed the tail number for the Statesman.
The FAA previously said the plane departed from an airport in Georgetown before crashing.
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FAA confirms plane came from Georgetown
The plane that hit a building today took off from a Georgetown airport at 9:40 a.m., before heading south and slamming into an office building in Northwest Austin, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said just after noon.
The plane, Brown said, was a single-engine Piper Cherokee, PA28. The FAA has the plane’s tail number, Brown said, but is not releasing it yet.
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Internet note posted by man linked to plane crash
Editor’s note: We found this note on a Web site being pointed at by social media users. A search showed the domain that the note was posted on is registered to Joe Stack of San Marcos. A man by the same name, who has addresses in both Austin and San Marcos has been linked to today’s airplane crash.
If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.
While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.
Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.
And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!
How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.
How did I get here?
My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.
The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.
That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.
Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.
On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father. I realized this at a very young age.
The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.
In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me). I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread. I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made. I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.
Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer… and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.
For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report (http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml#ConferenceCommitteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here (http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).
SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.
(a) IN GENERAL - Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:
(d) EXCEPTION. - This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. - The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.
Note:
· “another person” is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.
· “taxpayer” is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.
· “individual”, “employee”, or “worker” is you.
Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave. Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.
During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.
After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.
Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle. If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.
Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.
Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive. Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY! After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.
By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.
To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.
So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.
When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to XXXX XXXX, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, XXXX knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.
This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is… well, just look around.
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. 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 fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.
As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.
I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.
I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.
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 communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Joe Stack (1956-2010)
02/18/2010
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