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American Morning

In Tampa Plane Crash, It Appears Teenage Pilot Had a Death Wish

Aired January 07, 2002 - 07:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Up front this morning, the Tampa plane crash. It appears now that the teenage pilot who crashed a plane into the Bank of America building in downtown Tampa had a flight plan and a death wish.

Let's go live now to Tampa. That's exactly where we find CNN's Mark Potter this morning with an update -- good morning, Mark.

MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

The question facing authorities this morning is whether 15-year- old Charles Bishop was a terrorist, a copycat or a mixed up teenager. Right now they say they believe he was a troubled young man who committed suicide and put others at risk.

Now, Saturday afternoon he took a plane from this flight line in an aviation school where he was taking lessons for about nine to 12 minutes. He flew that plane toward Tampa and then crashed it into the 28th floor of the Bank of America Plaza building downtown, killing himself.

In a stunning announcement, police say they found a handwritten suicide note in which the boy said he acted alone but sympathized with Islamic terrorism. The note said that the boy acted alone, that he sympathized with Osama bin Laden. And the events of September 11.

Now, police say that they doubt that the boy actually was engaged in any terrorism, but they are going through his computer, they say, to see what contacts he may have made. The boy was described as a loner and a good student.

Now, this case has also raised serious questions again about aviation security. When the boy flew to Tampa, he flew right over MacDill Air Force Base, in fact, about 100 feet above the runway. MacDill is home to the central command, which heads the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan.

Officials there said that they never considered the flight to be a threat, but two F-15 fighters jets were sent from Homestead Air Force Base south of Miami. They were scrambled because there are no such fighters at MacDill. They arrived too late, however. By the time they got here the boy had already crashed into the building. Fortunately, Paula, no one else was hurt. Back to you.

ZAHN: Mark, I also understand that it is raising questions about the security at general aviation facilities across the country, with many flight schools now saying they're considering not allowing student pilots to go out to their planes alone, as they do their preflight checks. What have you heard about that?

POTTER: Well, we talked to the owner here, and I think you're going to be talking to him shortly. And he says that he will not change the security here. The boy was in the plane alone, as he was supposed to be. That's part of the preflight training. You're supposed to do that alone. He says he has never heard of a case where a student took advantage of that situation to then take the plane and fly away and crash it into a building.

Yes, those questions have been raised, but here at this airport they say they did nothing wrong and they don't plan to make any changes.

ZAHN: All right, thanks so much, Mark, for that update.

As Mark just mentioned, a little bit later on in the show I'll be talking with the owner of the flight school where that teenager took his training.

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