Plane crash here in Austin

[lillian13]

The site of the crash is about a mile or two away as the crow flies. We didn't hear anything, but saw the smoke from the fire.

From what I understand, the pilot was having real money problems (~$40,000) due to screwups on his side of taxes and was dealing with the typical IRS "we could care less" mindset.

So what does he do? He writes a manifesto (since taken down by request of the FBI), sets fire to his house with his wife and child inside (they got out OK), takes a plane, and flies it into the nearest big IRS office.

I'm sorry, but reading his screed made me just not care.  Rational people do not solve their problems by attempting mass murder, and oh, yeah, trying to kill your family.

Timeline here. Plus bonus pdf of the screed.

People suck.

Comments

[marthawells.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if that's really him in the plane, he sounds like a complete nutcase.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering, what happens to his wife and child? Are they going to inherit his IRS burden? Will insurance help them out on the house, or are they screwed because he set it on fire? Those poor people. I can't even imagine.

[othercat.livejournal.com]

I just saw this on my Yahoo account. Just...what the fuck? was my general reaction.

[marthawells.livejournal.com]

It looks like now that the wife and kid weren't inside the house, but drove up after the fire started.

[bevhale.livejournal.com]

I used to be a revenoooooer. Believe me, the IRS folks aren't bent on trying to ruin a person's life. They are comparing the return to the rules. If the return doesn't match, the figures are reworked. Auditors only want to close the bloody case. They have lots of cases open, are overworked, and are screamed at by everyone. The only time they get really tough is if the taxpayer acts like an asshat. (or at least it was that way when I was there--back in the dark ages). Many people don't even try to check whether something is allowable (there are phonelines, free booklets, email inquiry stuff that people can do). I had a woman tell me that I was a bitch because I wouldn't let her take off birdfeed to feed the birds. She wanted it to be ok, and thought screaming at me would make it so. I hated being an auditor.