Possible Terrorist Attack in Milwaukee

[Babs]

I've been sort of worrying lately about terror attacks, but we don't know anything yet. I wonder what the FBI will come up with? It could be an accident, I am so quick to see terror attack.

_ Well, can you blame me?

[twpdyp]

I am familiar with this area and let me reassure you, if they know where it took off from then they know most everything else they need to know to determine if it is terrorist. I well know Dekalb- Peachtree airport, it is your typical small airport that services mostly private small aircraft, to the best of my knowledge.

[Babs]

Pilot and one passenger: the plane was spinning out of control according to witnesses. "Thank goodness" it was an abandoned building.

Anyway, I was thinking about how the election is going so 'smoothly and all' (with no terrorist attacks) that I am starting to think something is 'around the corner'.

Edited October 19, 2004 by Babs

[Babs]

twp...this will probably go off the national news, could you tell me more on the story from the local front...or if the local news drops the story?Thanks.

[twpdyp]

Plane Crashes Downtown, 2 Killed

The plane slammed into Edgewood Collision and burned part of the structure.

Web Editor: Sean Rowe

Last Modified: 10/19/2004 4:34:03 PM

Two people were killed when a twin-engine plane spiraled out of control and clipped a one-story body shop during stormy weather in downtown Atlanta Tuesday, authorities said.

"From the witness reports, he came spinning out of the sky. We have a distress signal. I haven't heard that yet," said Eric Alleyne, aviation safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

The victims' bodies were removed from the wreckage by the medical examiner. Their identities were not released.

No injuries were reported on the ground and the two people inside the business escaped without being harmed, according to Alleyne.

The Beech Baron 55 departed DeKalb-Peachtree Airport en route to Venice, Fla., according to a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane took the nose dive 12 miles away at 10:55 a.m.

One witness told 11Alive's Harry Samler, "I heard this sputtering. I thought it was doing acrobatics. He tried to go back up, but I guess he couldn't make it."

Those sounds preceded the plane’s impact at Edgewood Collision at Edgewood and Boulevard. The impact sparked a fireball, which was quickly extinguished by Atlanta firefighters arriving at the scene.

Authorities reported no other injuries in the area of northwest Atlanta, which is densely dotted with apartment-style residences and several businesses.

Local resident George White told 11Alive News he heard something sputtering in the sky before seeing the plane, literally, fall out of the sky and burst into flames upon impact.

White said, "I was checking my mailbox... All of a sudden I heard a noise like 'errrrr, errrrrr' and here come a big ol', twin-engine plane falling out of the sky."

"I ran to the scene and everything was on fire. I mean buildings, grass... I saw people crying. I saw buildings on fire. I saw fire in the water...and it was popping and it was chaos," White said.

The plane went down in the historic Sweet Auburn district and about 40 yards directly behind the birth home of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. King preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church -- only a few blocks from the crash site.

Another witness said, “Well, I was working down in the basement, I came outside…I ran out and I seen a plane fall and when it did, it just exploded. A couple of guys ran out there and tried to save a couple of people, but I guess they made it.”

“I never seen anything like this in my life,” he said.

Several park rangers from the nearby King Center were the first at the crash site. A temporary fire in the plane was also extinguished, authorities said.

Atlanta fire units 6, 10 and 12 also responded to the crash site, in addition to law enforcement from Fulton County and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

A few blocks from the crash site, Felix Folster reported seeing, “Police and fire have everything block’d off so that you can’t get that close to it. Tons of people standing around, GBI is here now, Fulton County [police].”

A spokesperson at Atlanta Medical Center says the emergency department, which includes a trauma team, went on alert to receive anyone injured at the scene. The center is located about four blocks from the crash site along Edgewood.

The NTSP said they did not know if inclement weather played a role in the incident. 11Alive Meteorologist Chris Holcomb said, "We had winds generally from the south at 10 mph but when we have these storms move through, at times we can see the winds gusting up but it wasn't really anything out of the ordinary. Winds generally could have been between 15 to 25, maybe 35 mph."

Authorities advised all drivers to use alternate routes to avoid delays in the area. Department of Transportation officials were on the scene to assist Atlanta police officers.

"We have done that at this point by putting signs up on the changeable message boards warning motorists of the crash in this area and to stay away and avoid using the exit ramps," said DOT spokeswoman Vicki Gavales.

The roadways in the area would likely remain closed until Wednesday evening while the investigation by the NTSB gets underway, according to Atlanta police spokesman John Quigley.

"On Edgewood Avenue, between the interstate and Randolph Street, Edgewood is closed down. The other major thoroughfare impacted is Boulevard. Boulevard is closed from north of Memorial Drive and south of John Wesley Dobbs Boulevard," Quigley said.

The plane was registered to J&R Aircraft Inc. of Nokomis, Fla., according to an FAA database.

http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=53450

[Independent1]

This incident looks like it was more probably an accident-mechanical failure of some sort maybe.

BTW, no new news on the power line sabotage incident here in Milwaukee.

[Independent1]

I just remembered another recent incident from here in Milwaukee, one involving a domestic terrorist & unabomber wanna-be.

Man accused of bomb plot

Reuss Federal Plaza was his target, U.S. attorney says

A man who idolizes the Unabomber, according to court documents, was charged Wednesday with planning to blow up the Reuss Federal Plaza, a downtown office building where more than 800 government employees work.

Steven J. Parr, 39, of Janesville had made several practice bombs, one of which damaged his hearing, according to court documents. He also has "Uni" and a picture of a time bomb tattooed on his right arm.

Parr was nearing the end of a state prison term on drug charges when authorities learned of his plans to bomb the federal building, according to the criminal complaint. As a result, he was taken into federal custody instead of being released to a halfway house as scheduled Wednesday, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

"This was not just an idle threat by someone in the prison system," said U.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic. "We were going to make sure that none of the employees that work in that building were harmed. . . . We consider him extremely dangerous, and that is why we took action today."

According to court documents, Parr's history included an admission that he set fire to a woman's house with napalm seven years ago because he was angry with her, which added to authorities' fears.

He is charged with threatening to bomb a federal building. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Parr's cellmate alerted authorities to the plot and allowed the FBI to tape record conversations between the two. During those discussions, Parr described himself as both a separatist and a domestic terrorist. He also revealed plans to destroy the federal building using a delivery-type truck filled with fertilizer. He planned to buy a brown uniform from Farm and Fleet, attach a name tag and carry a clipboard so as not to draw attention to himself or the vehicle, according to the documents.

FBI agents were concerned that Parr had conducted surveillance of the building because he knew it is approximately 25 feet from the street, is across from The Shops of Grand Avenue and has a glass exterior. He also told his cellmate he had seen delivery trucks driving right up to the building. There is no reason someone from Janesville, which is 65 miles from Milwaukee, would know so much about the building, according to the FBI.

"This threat - it was very detailed. It was apparent that the suspect was very familiar with the makeup of this building," said David Mitchell, special agent in charge of the FBI's Milwaukee office.

Transcripts of the recorded conversations are included in the criminal complaint against Parr. In one of them, Parr said that he hoped to join Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in the history books.

"I hope it'll make people aware," he said. "I hope others will say, wow, he can stand up and make a statement like that. I might not be as radical as (McVeigh) but I surely agree with him. . . . It might generate some people to stand up and say, you know what? Enough is enough."

Parr also told the cellmate that his attitude had been declining since he lost custody of a boy who he thought was his son. Parr had been raising the boy when a paternity test proved that he wasn't the father. Parr told a new girlfriend that he had started a fire outside the home of the couple who was given custody, according to court records.

In another conversation with the cellmate, Parr talked about blowing up a building on a friend's farm for practice. Parr and his friend had run about 200 feet from the outbuilding when the explosion "knocked us right off our feet," according to the records.

At the time of Parr's arrest for selling marijuana in 2001, police seized a copy of an explosives recipe book called "The Anarchist Cookbook" and a notebook with handwritten chemical formulas for an "ammonia fountain," a "boiling tube cannon" and "mustard gas."

Parr's family members told FBI agents Tuesday that, at the time of his arrest, they removed chemistry books and large drums with chemical-type writing on them from his house. The relatives have since destroyed those items, according to court records.

Read more about it Here.

[Babs]

Thanks for this local information. We never get anything more on the national news about these incidents or accidents.