Crash Investigated As Possible Act Of Terrorism
Truck Crashes Into Fuel Storage Plant
POSTED: 11:42 am EST April 22, 2004
UPDATED: 11:43 am EST April 22, 2004
HUNTINGTON, Ind. -- Huntington Police Chief Terry Stoffel said investigators have not ruled out the possibility that an early Wednesday crash was a terrorist attack that went awry.
Federal authorities have joined the investigation into a stolen truck's crash through a fence that surrounds a northeastern Indiana fuel storage and processing plant.
"I'm not saying it is or it's not an act of terrorism," Stoffel said. "But everything needs to be looked at."
The crash outside the Gladieux Trading and Marketing compound was witnessed by employees from a nearby machine shop, PHD Inc.
Stoffle said they told police they saw one or two people jump from the truck and flee the scene, but were unable to give descriptions of the person or persons.
After the 2 a.m. crash, police found no footprints or anything else at the scene to indicate the direction the truck's occupant or occupants took.
Stoffel said an FBI agent from the Fort Wayne office joined Huntington detectives at the scene Wednesday morning. He said the federal agency will handle the investigation.
"Pretty much, the investigation will be turned over to the people who specialize in this area," Stoffel said.
He said the pickup truck was stolen from an unspecified location in Huntington a few hours earlier.
The truck crashed through the fence, snapped a utility pole guy wire and eventually crashed into two conduits that stopped the vehicle.
Stoffel said he doesn't know if the interior of the truck bears any signs of an occupant being injured, but believes such an injury is possible "just (because of) the ride the vehicle took to crash the fence."
The truck veered off U.S. 24 and jumped a shallow ditch before crashing through the fence. When the guy wire snapped, it whipped into a power line, creating an explosive short-circuit that plunged the tank farm area into darkness, police said.
A mechanic working in a nearby maintenance building told police he saw the truck drive toward the electrically operated main gate. The driver saw it was closed, then drove in a circle around the maintenance building before taking an access road along the edge of the property.
The truck followed the road to a 15-foot earthen dike separating the storage tanks from a refining station. It climbed the dike and stopped when it struck the two low-lying electrical conduits that run parallel to the ground just beyond the lip of the dike.
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/3031288/detail.htmlNice catch gipper! This is the kind of activity that I expect to see an increase in as time goes by.
This country has yet to experience it's first homicide bombing. When it happens, there are going to be a lot of very surprised and frighted people. These are the same people who do not wish to discuss such scary topics and would rather keep their head in the sand. We here at The Threat Matrix will not be surprised or frightened. Very angry perhaps, but not surprised.
At least they are investigating the incident as potentially terrorism. The FBI being called it is indicative they know what they are up against. We are being bombarded with "incidents" just like this one. Some are successful, some are not, but the scary part of this story is that the perpetrators escaped and are free to continue their strategy of slowly and surely disabling our country. When I think of the people outraged because of the people incarcerated in Guantanamo, it concerns me that they could be so stupid as to risk the lives of their fellow citizens.