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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (15645)	1/5/2002 10:36:48 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Plane Crashes Into Tampa Skyscraper TAMPA, Fla. –– A small plane with a student pilot took off without permission Saturday, did not respond to orders to land from a Coast Guard helicopter and then crashed into a skyscraper, authorities said. A law enforcement official in Washington, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said the FBI does not believe the crash is related to terrorism but has sent agents to the scene. The student left the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport in a Cessna 172 and then crashed into the Bank of America building, Coast Guard Lt. Lance Isakson said. It hit near the 20th floor of the 40-story building. Air traffic controllers notified the Coast Guard helicopter that the plane had taken off without clearance, said Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Charlotte Pittman. The helicopter intercepted the plane and attempted to give the pilot visual signals to land at a small airport, but the plane did not respond, Pittman said. She said the plane was only a few yards from the helicopter when it was signaled to land. Pittman said she has no doubt the pilot understood what the Coast Guard helicopter was indicating. Federal Aviation Authority spokesman Scott Brenneer said the plane was flown by "a student pilot who did not have permission to fly the aircraft." Tampa Police Department spokesman Joe Durkin said there was no immediate word on injuries. Tampa Police and fire crews were on the scene of the crash, which occurred shortly after 5 p.m. Hijacked passenger planes were used to collapse the World Trade Center towers and attack the Pentagon in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A fourth hijacked plane crashed in western Pennsylvania. Some of the pilots in the hijackings had been trained at Florida flight schools. Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., is the third-largest U.S. bank. It employs about 143,000 people and serves about 30 million households in 20 states. Bank officials did not immediately return calls for comment Saturday. © 2002 The Associated Press washingtonpost.com