Plane Crushes Into Florida Towers

WASHINGTON, Sunday - US military aircraft scrambled to intercept a small airplane piloted by a 15-year-old that crashed into a Tampa, Florida skyscraper late Saturday, killing the youth but causing no other casualties. Although terrorism was discounted in the crash, investigators were baffled about what motivated the youngster — identified as Charles Bishop of Palm Harbor, Florida — to fly the plane without authorization, even flying into restricted airspace over the US command that directs the war in Afghanistan. The US military immediately noted the unauthorized takeoff. “The plane was tracked by three different radars right from the outset,” said a defense official, who wished to remain unidentified. Concern about the boy’s intentions heightened when the Cessna entered restricted airspace over MacDill Air Force Base, home to the US Central Command, which directs the US war in Afghanistan and other facets of the anti-terrorism campaign, according to defense and police officials. A Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter was ordered to intercept the intruding aircraft, while a pair of National Guard F-15 fighter jets were dispatched off the Homestaed Air Reserve Station on Florida’s east coast, the officials said.“The fighters took off at about 2216 GMT in response to the incident and flew to Tampa,” Captain Richard Bittner, a spokesman for the Florida National Guard, told AFP. AFPEnds