2002 Tampa plane crash
The plane's tail hangs from the Bank of America building in Tampa, Florida.
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| Occurrence summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | January 5, 2002 |
| Summary | Aircraft theft and suicide by pilot |
| Site |
Tampa, Florida, U.S. Coordinates: 27°56′49″N 82°27′33″W / 27.947°N 82.45928°W |
| Passengers | 0 |
| Crew | 1 |
| Fatalities | 1 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Cessna 172 |
| Operator | Privately owned |
| Registration | N2371N |
The 2002 Tampa airplane crash was an incident that occurred on January 5, 2002. The incident occurred when Charlie J. Bishop, a high-school student of East Lake High School in Tarpon Springs, Florida, United States, stole a Cessna 172 and crashed it into the side of the Bank of America Tower in downtown Tampa, Florida. Bishop had been inspired by the September 11 attacks. The impact killed the teenager and damaged an office room. There were no other injuries.
Bishop had left a suicide note crediting Osama bin Laden for the September 11 attacks and praising it as a justified response to actions against the Palestinians and Iraqis, and said he (Bishop) was acting on behalf of Al Qaeda, from whom he'd turned down help. As officials could find no evidence of any connections, terrorism as a motive was ruled out, and they suggested that the crash was an apparent suicide. Bishop's mother filed, then dropped, a lawsuit claiming that an acne medicine Bishop took, isotretinoin, had side effects such as depression and suicidal actions, and caused the incident.
At 5:00 pm EST, 15-year-old Charlie J. Bishop's instructor left him at the plane to perform a preflight inspection. Once he was left alone in the plane, he started the engine and took off without permission. As soon as the plane took off, the air traffic controllers alerted the United States Coast Guard and the MacDill Air Force Base. Despite repeated warnings from a helicopter dispatched by the Coast Guard, the small plane continued on until it collided with an office building. The plane crashed between the 28th and 29th floors of the 42-story building.
Bishop was a 15-year-old high-school student from Tarpon Springs, Florida. At the time of the incident, he was a student pilot and only authorized to fly with a Certified Flight Instructor.
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