Austin Office Building Struck by Small Plane

Austin, TXA small plane crashed into the seven-story Echelon Building in Austin this morning, injuring at least two people. A third person is unaccounted for. The pilot, Andrew Joseph Stack III, is presumed dead. The Echelon Building houses about 190 IRS employees, as well as employees from the CIA and FBI.

It is thought that Stack, a resident of Austin, may have crashed his private plane into the government building deliberately, as he apparently had an ongoing dispute with the Inland Revenue Service (IRS). MSNBC reports that Stack posted a long message to his company website early Thursday morning, outlining the problems he was having with the IRS, stating that "violence is the only answer."

"If you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself, 'Why did this have to happen?'" Stack wrote. "The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time."

Stack allegedly blames the IRS for the loss of tens of thousands of dollars and retirement funds, dating back to the 1980s. "That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0." he wrote. "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."

He continued: "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?"

Towards the end of his post he wrote, "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."

Eyewitness Reports

Stack's small plane reportedly crashed into the building between the first and second floors. One IRS employee in the building at the time said it felt like a bomb going off. "The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran," she told reporters.

Another witness, Matt Farney, who was in the parking lot of the nearby Home Depot when the plane crashed, said that it was flying low to the ground, near some apartments. "I figured he was going to buzz the apartments or he was showing off," Farney told MSNBC.com. "It was a ball of flames that was high or higher than the apartments. It was surreal. It was insane. ... It didn't look like he was out of control or anything."

Latest reports indicate that the fire at the Echelon Building has been brought under control.