Teen Suicide Pilot Might Have Targeted Air Force Base, FBI Reports

AP Breaking News ^ | June 19, 2003

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Newly released FBI documents say a 15-year-old boy who stole a plane and crashed it into a skyscraper might have originally targeted MacDill Air Force Base in his suicide mission. An FBI review of Charles Bishop's Internet activity showed the teen sought maps of the base and information about it. He also sent an e-mail to a classmate asking where Central Command was located on the base.

Bishop died on Jan. 5, 2002, when he flew a Cessna stolen from a flight school into the Bank of America building in downtown Tampa. He left a note expressing sympathy for Osama bin Laden.

The FBI report obtained by The Tampa Tribune said agents were initially concerned that Bishop had made contact with "other young people who might have the propensity to carry out an act of terrorism similar to Bishop's."

"To date, this investigation has not provided any indication that Bishop participated in a concerted effort with other individuals," the FBI report said.

During the suicide flight, Bishop briefly flew over the base, but when Coast Guard helicopters tried to intercept him, he veered off and flew a few miles toward downtown. No one else was hurt in the crash.

Bishop's family blames his suicide on the acne drug Accutane and has sued the drug's makers for $70 million. Hoffmann-La Roche has denied any link between its drug and suicide.

Bishop had e-mailed a friend telling him to watch the news for a story about him, the FBI report said.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

I remember when this story first broke, you said it was a muslim in a suicide flight, and you took heat for it. If I recall, didn't you also point out the military base as a possible target? Good call, good catch. Hang in there.

[BlueNgold]

Local to the area. They tried to make the kid into the victim around here. Everyone downplayed the flight path and intercept avoidance despite his writings about agreeing with Osama.

[TonyWojo]

Bishop's family blames his suicide on the acne drug Accutane and has sued the drug's makers for $70 million.

I am sure the $70 mil will help them forget their loss.

[TomGuy]

This also was around the time Shoebomber Reid was the lone nutcase with no connections to terrorism/al-Qaeda, etc, spin. [Of course, that, too, proved wrong later. He was very connected with terrorism/al-Qaeda.]

[OldFriend]

We all knew he was a terrorist sympathizer.......intent on harming America.

[snopercod]

Another example of how AP and the other media want to keep up the drumbeat against private flying in the U.S.

Regardless of the physics of the matter ( a fully-loaded Cessna 150 weighs 30% less than a Volkswagen beetle), they continue to scare people about the threat of "little planes".

They just can't stand freedom - which personal flying represents.

[ewing]

He's just a harmless depresssed high school boy! (with a Muslim extremist Dad, and has just converted to the Islamokazi faith)

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

The

"No evidence of this being related to any act of terrorism"

response from the government has become the phrase which automaticaly perks up *my* ears.

But, that's just me....

[VaBthang4]

"Bishop's family blames his suicide on the acne drug Accutane and has sued the drug's makers for $70 million."

ROTFLOL!! Classic.

[BOOTSTICK]

I remember the day it happened, it was obvious to me what this jihadist was doing. What really burned me was how the little terrorists teachers went on national TV to spout garbage about what a great kid he was. This prompted me to e-mail the punks principal and ask him to join me in giving thanks for the little rats death....he declined.

[expatpat]

I think you're right (although, to be fair, I think the govt. is worried about a small plane being loaded with explosives). My local base airport is in the DC Air Defence Identification Zone, and its a pain to fly out or in. No longer can I just pop in the plane and take off with complete freedom.

[Ayn Rand wannabe]

Have they ever said what kind of Cessna he was flying? I mean, it really doesn't make that much of a difference in regards that they are really overplaying "the threat" as you say, i'm just a bit curious...

[John H K]

(with a Muslim extremist Dad, and has just converted to the Islamokazi faith)

Please provide sources for the above two assertions....

[aristeides]

I remember reading reports at the time that the father was a Syrian, and seeing the original name, which was an Arabic name similar to Bishop. The boy's name had been changed to Bishop.

I also remember reports that the boy had left a note expressing adherence to bin Laden's cause.

[aristeides]

If I'm not mistaken, MacDill Air Force Base is the headquarters of the Armed Forces Special Operations Command, which had just played a major role in the fighting in Afghanistan shortly before this boy went on his fatal flight.

[John H K]

Was a long time ago but this is yet another one of those cases where the facts are "misremembered" the way people want to, and then repeated inaccurately.

The truth of the matter was that the boy is 1/4 Arab, and 3/4s Italian.

Father is 1/2 Arab and 1/2 Italian and doesn't speak a word of Arabic, and was born in the US.

It was either the GRANDFATHER or GREAT-GRANDFATHER that actually immigrated to the Boston area early in the century.

That's roughly the time when large numbers of Syrian-Lebanese Christians immigrated to the Boston area.

I've never seen the slightest scrap of evidence the father was a Muslim, or that the boy was, or that either had ever even set foot in a mosque.

[Shermy]

If I'm not mistaken, MacDill Air Force Base is the headquarters of the Armed Forces Special Operations Command, which had just played a major role in the fighting in Afghanistan shortly before this boy went on his fatal flight.

True. But maybe just a coincidence of the boy already being near there. "CharlesBishop" key word above brings up a few earlier stories.

I've never seen the slightest scrap of evidence the father was a Muslim, or that the boy was, or that either had ever even set foot in a mosque.

I don't know if he had any religious affiliation. However there is his note praising Osama.

[Shermy]

Police release Charles Bishop suicide note (15 yr old Tampa plane suicide, Osama sympathizer) Feb. 6, 2002

[swarthyguy]

Original name was Bishara.