TAMPA – A 15-year-old student pilot took off in a small plane without permission yesterday and crashed into a skyscraper housing the law offices of one of Toledo’s most prominent law firms after ignoring a Coast Guard helicopter’s signals to land, authorities said.
The crash occurred after Charles J. Bishop’s grandmother took him to the National Aviation Academy flight school for a 5 p.m. flying lesson, said Marianne Pasha, a Pinellas County sheriff’s office spokeswoman. She said an instructor told the Bishop youth to check the plane’s equipment before the lesson. “The next thing the instructor knew he was gone,” Ms. Pasha said.
Capt. Bill Wade of the Tampa fire department said nobody was hurt on the ground or in the building but indicated that the pilot was dead, saying the fate of any occupants of the aircraft appeared obvious.
The plane crashed near the 28th-floor offices of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, a law firm founded in Toledo in 1925. The firm has offices at 1000 Jackson St.
An attorney and her husband were in the law library when the plane crashed, said Bill Newell, the firm’s chief operating officer.
“Everybody else was out, and nobody was hurt,” Mr. Newell, of Toledo, said.
About 150 lawyers are associated with the firm, which has offices in Toledo, Columbus, Tampa, and Charlotte, N.C.
The Tampa office manager, Sue Baer, heard about the crash from authorities, Mr. Newell said.
“The FBI and authorities were allowing nobody in,” Mr. Newell said. “But they said they were going to call [Ms. Baer] tomorrow, and she would be allowed in with them.
“We’re hoping we can go back to work Monday, but the authorities made it clear it’s their call.”
He did not know the extent of damage to the law firm’s offices.
Mr. Newell said as many as half the 45 lawyers at the firm in Tampa might come to the office any given Saturday – although most are gone by late afternoon.
Though terrorism was quickly discounted, the televised image of a plane blasting a hole in the side of a skyscraper was a chilling reminder of the World Trade Center attacks. The plane’s tail dangled near the 28th floor of the 42-story Bank of America building.
Michael Cronin, an attorney for the academy, said young Bishop had been taking lessons since March and had logged about six hours of flight time.
Air traffic controllers at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport notified the Coast Guard that the four-seat 2000 Cessna 172R had taken off without clearance, said Coast Guard Lt. Charlotte Pittman. A Coast Guard helicopter intercepted the plane and attempted to give the pilot visual signals to land at a small airport, but the pilot did not respond, she said.
Aircraft takeoffs at Tampa International Airport and St. Petersburg-Clearwater airport were halted for 40 minutes, the FAA said.
