Casualties and the Austin Plane Attack
[Guest post by DRJ]
Are you as curious as I was why there weren’t more people killed or injured in Joe Stack’s plane attack on the Austin IRS office? Depending on how you look at it, it was sheer luck or by the grace of God:
“On Thursday morning, just minutes before a single-engine plane would plunge into the Echelon I building, the Travis County Hazardous Materials Team gathered in the parking lot of Dave and Buster’s at the intersection of U.S. 183 and MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1).
It was the first time the team, made up of firefighters from the Lake Travis, Pflugerville, Westlake, Oak Hill and other fire departments, had decided to hold its monthly training exercise there. Someone had heard that the big, empty lot was available, and it was a central location for team members coming from the four corners of Travis County.
The parking lot just happened to be across the highway from the Echelon I building.”
The HazMat team was able to respond several minutes earlier than the Austin fire department, many of whom were already battling a fire at Stack’s home. But their presence wasn’t the only good news:
“Equally lucky was the fact that Lake Travis firefighters had brought their fire engine. Typically, the team doesn’t use fire engines, but Lake Travis Fire and Rescue had just received some new trucks and wanted to show one off to the other departments, said Lake Travis Lt. Ben Sanders. “By the grace of God, we had this apparatus with us,” he said.
Three firefighters drove to the crash site and initiated a “blitz attack,” blasting the gaping hole left by the plane with their deck gun. Those efforts helped squelch the fire around the crash area.
“They were able to knock that fireball down and give people extra time to evacuate,” Warren said.”
According to the report, the building’s first floor was almost vacant and most people were working on the second floor — where they were trapped by burning fabrics and papers. Their guardian angel was a local window installer who helped many of them escape even before the search and rescue team deployed:
“Several were saved by a window installer, Robin De Haven, who had been driving down the highway when he saw the crash and quickly used his ladder to free employees from a window on the second floor.
After the crews cleared the first two floors, Warren stopped them from going up to the third. At that point, he said, the steel floor beams were beginning to sag. “They wanted to go to the third floor, but I wouldn’t let them until I knew that the building wasn’t going to collapse,” he said.”
Fire officials also credited the building’s sprinkler system and broken windows that allowed the smoke to escape.
— DRJ
Even with all these favorable things, that little airplane sure did a lot of damage. If there truly was a bomb in the guy’s car at the airport, then it would seem obvious that he brought a bomb with him on his kamikaze mission.
I’d also like to know if the victim, Vernon Hunter – manager of collections, just happened to be the last IRS person who spoke with Stack.
j curtis (5126e4) — 2/21/2010 @ 6:50 pmI agree the plane did a lot of damage. The city has indefinitely shut down part of the access road to a major Austin highway — Hwy 183 — where this building was located because engineers are concerned about the structural integrity of the building.
I don’t know if Vernon Hunter and Stack had any contact, although Hunter’s family said he would have helped Stack if he had known him. That suggests they had not met. The article said Hunter and his wife worked in the same building. She made it out but he was a volunteer safety coordinator for his floor and that may be why he stayed in the building.
Hunter was also a Vietnam veteran and he will receive full military honors at his funeral in Austin, followed by burial at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen.
DRJ (6a8003) — 2/21/2010 @ 7:10 pmThat is a great story of divine intervention. Not the kind of outcome Joe Stack was looking for-I guess.
Nigerian Observer (dfd30b) — 2/21/2010 @ 7:22 pmPlease, don’t sell the AFD short on this one. Reponse time for the AFD is 4 1.2 minutes. They made in before that.
retire05 (1e885c) — 2/21/2010 @ 7:47 pmHey, everyone knows that no steel framed building collapsed because of a fire!
/raving truther moonbat
:azarus Long (a4f63e) — 2/21/2010 @ 7:54 pmWill Rosie say this is proof the Obama Whitehouse was complicit? How does that work?
Machinist (9780ec) — 2/21/2010 @ 8:00 pmWhen the airliner crashed at Sioux City I believe the local emergency services had just completed a joint exercise and responded with great speed and coordination, saving more lives.
Machinist (9780ec) — 2/21/2010 @ 8:04 pmGood call, Machinist. How many minutes until people begin to use this as proof that the Govt. knew about the attack?
Pat (366dd8) — 2/21/2010 @ 9:05 pmHere is the FAA’s preliminary information on the incident. They do not have much.
Here is an audio record (from avweb.com) of the last known radio calls of Stack. His call sign is Dakota (28)89 delta. The audio clip starts with him getting clearance for takeoff. This is followed by the communications between the tower and other traffic in the pattern. It ends with the tower relinquishing control of Stack’s aircraft and him acknowledging with an unofficial, but standard reply “Thanks for your help, have a great day.”
Everything was entirely routine up to that point; just standard communications with the tower. There was absolutely nothing in his voice or actions that might indicate his intent to commit murder via suicide; no hesitations, distractions, or nervousness — nothing.
A cold heart.
Pons Asinorum (d41770) — 2/21/2010 @ 10:30 pm> Depending on how you look at it, it was sheer luck or by the grace of God
You forgot the deep and essential stupidity of a true lefty, no matter how the media attempts to portray this loser POS as a “tea party type”.
Sorry, if I’m going to give up my life to crash a plane into a building full of IRS people, I am quite certain I’m going to fill the dumbass plane with some ANFO first.
You have to be a total moron to fail to grasp that. One of the chief reasons why those planes did so much damage to the WTC is because they were still fairly full of jet fuel.
;-P
IgotBupkis (79d71d) — 2/22/2010 @ 1:04 amYou think planes actually crashed into the WTC?! Wake up! It was photoshop! And aliens! With death rays!
Don’t forget the cruise missiles, either.
Or something.
Steve B (5eacf6) — 2/22/2010 @ 2:48 amProvidence. That is some amazing providence.
Vivian Louise (643333) — 2/22/2010 @ 3:48 amThe brand new Lake Travis Fire Rescue [object]
[note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]
Tim (bfb44b) — 2/22/2010 @ 7:44 amDebra Medina sympathizes with the hopelessness of the pilot
geez
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-medina_20tex.ART.State.Edition1.4bcbf02.html
EricPWJohnson (87a18a) — 2/22/2010 @ 9:00 amPlus, all the Jews were notified beforehand to stay home that day….
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