Pilot, in suicide attack, rams IRS building in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas - A software engineer furious with the Internal Revenue Service launched a suicide attack on the agency yesterday by crashing his small plane into an office building containing nearly 200 IRS employees, setting off a raging fire that sent workers running for their lives.

At least one person in the building was missing.

The FBI tentatively identified the pilot as Joseph A. Stack, 53.

Law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still going on, said that before taking off Stack apparently set fire to his house and posted a long anti-government screed on the Web. It was dated yesterday and signed "Joe Stack (1956-2010)."

In it, the author cited run-ins he had with the IRS and ranted about the tax agency, government bailouts and corporate America's "thugs and plunderers."

"I have had all I can stand," he wrote, adding: "I choose not to keep looking over my shoulder at 'big brother' while he strips my carcass."

The pilot took off in a four-seat, single engine Piper PA-28 from an airport in Georgetown, about 30 miles from Austin, without filing a flight plan.

He flew low over the Austin skyline before plowing into the side of the hulking, seven-story, black-glass building just before 10 a.m. with a thunderous explosion that instantly stirred memories of Sept. 11.

The Pentagon scrambled two F-16 fighter jets from Houston to patrol the skies over the burning building before it became clear that it was the act of a lone pilot, and President Barack Obama was briefed.

"It felt like a bomb blew off," said Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who was sitting at her desk. "The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran."

Stack was presumed dead. Emergency crews had found a body in the building last night, but Police Chief Art Acevedo declined to say whether it was the pilot.

At least 13 people were injured, with two reported in critical condition. About 190 IRS employees work in the building.

The FBI and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating.

Elbert Hutchins, who lives one house away, said Stack's house caught fire about 9:15 a.m. He said a woman and her daughter drove up to the house before firefighters arrived. "They both were very, very distraught," he said.

Red Cross spokeswoman Marty McKellips said the agency was treating two people who live in the house and that the family had no comment.