International
Boy pilot supported Osama
By Sridhar Krishnaswami
WASHINGTON, JAN. 7. Authorities investigating the crash of a Cessna plane into a skyscraper in Florida have come to the conclusion that it was not a terrorist act although the 15-year-old lad who crashed the plane did leave a note expressing support for Osama bin Laden.
Investigators are now in the process of interviewing Charles Bishop's family and going through his computer, media reports say.
Bishop slammed the Cessna 172 into the 42-storey Bank of America building after travelling some 20 miles alone without an instructor and ignoring signals from a Coast Guard helicopter to land.
It is said that at least two F-15 jets had scrambled from the nearby Homestead Air Reserve Base but came to the scene only after Bishop crashed into the building. He died but no one else in the building was injured.
The White House had been in touch with the Homeland Security Office as also the Federal Aviation Administration and the President, George W. Bush, had been briefed about the incident, according to a spokesman.
What was of some concern initially on Saturday was that two other small planes also crashed, one near Boulder, Colorado, and the other in a vacant field in Los Angeles, California.
``Bishop can best be described as a young man who had very few friends and was very much a loner. From his actions we can assume he was a very troubled young man'', the Tampa police chief said.
Police are saying that Bishop, a freshman in high school (grade nine) had no terrorist ties. A handwritten suicide note was found in his pocket.
Friends of Bishop have variously described him - including that he was brilliant and being an ordinary, quiet kid. ``I know he was an honor student. He got straight A's'', remarked a classmate.
An attorney for the aviation school where Bishop was taking flying lessons said the boy had often cleaned planes in exchange for flight time. Bishop was a year away from being able to fly alone and two years short of getting a pilot's licence.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
International
|
