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MIAMI (Dec. 5) - A small plane crashed into the Federal Reserve Bank Building on Thursday night, killing the pilot, authorities said. No one inside the building was injured.
''We have no information that it was an intentional crash,'' said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown in Washington. ''It appears to be an accident.''
More than 100 people were attending a holiday party in the one-story building when the aircraft slammed into the northeast side of the bank, exploded and burst into flames. The building also houses the Miami bureau of The Associated Press.
Based on communications between the pilot and air traffic controllers, Brown said the FAA believes the plane was coming from Marathon in the Florida Keys and traveling to New Smyrna Beach on Florida's central east coast.
Another FAA spokeswoman, Kathleen Bergen, called the plane a single-engine aircraft, likely a home-built experimental aircraft.
An FBI agent assigned to Miami International Airport was en route to the accident and the agency was keeping in close contact with investigators, said FBI Miami spokeswoman Judy Orihuela.
The building is about three miles west of the airport. Some windows were broken but there appeared to be no structural damage.
The bank building is just north of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military activities in 32 nations and 12 dependencies in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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