FDLE's report sheds little light on bank tower crash

The report affirms much of what was thought about teenager Charles Bishop's fatal flight.

By GRAHAM BRINK, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 13, 2002

Charles Bishop appeared to be in complete control of his stolen plane when it began to descend about 4 miles from downtown Tampa.

The 15-year-old ignored commands from the Coast Guard helicopter crew tracking him and refused to land at a nearby airport before he crashed the plane into the 28th floor of the Bank of America building on Ashley Street.

Those were among the findings of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's inquiry into the Jan. 5 crash that raised questions about teenage depression and ties to terrorism.

The report, released Tuesday, confirmed previous findings but provided few new details about the teenager, who had few close friends and moved often during his childhood.

James Sewell, regional director for the FDLE in Tampa, said authorities may never know what drove Bishop to steal and crash the Cessna.

"I think we made as good an effort as anybody could expect," he said. "But I don't think we will ever fully understand what was in this young man's mind."

Bishop, who was a student at National Aviation, a Clearwater flying school, had a scheduled lesson at 5 p.m. that day. On the way to the lesson, he told his grandmother, Karen Johnson: "If I have an accident today, the only people I want at my funeral are you and my mother." He also said that if anything happened, not to tell his grandfather, whom he called "Pops."

Johnson told FDLE investigators that she did not find the statements unusual because Bishop knew the dangers of flying and had expressed jitters in the past. In previously released reports, Johnson said her grandson seemed to be in a good mood before the lesson and was making jokes about former president Bill Clinton.

At the flight school, Bishop appeared to be making a routine preflight check when he started the plane and took off. Observers at the school said he taxied and took off so fast that it was obvious he was trying to steal the plane.

Air traffic controllers said they quickly discerned that the plane was stolen and did everything required in such a situation. A Coast Guard helicopter on a routine flight was asked by the control tower at MacDill Air Force Base to verify the plane's intentions.

The helicopted crew said they could see Bishop moving in the cockpit, but they could not tell what he was doing. His flying was steady and level.

Bishop, who had not answered any radio calls, ignored hand signals to land at Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Islands, south of downtown Tampa. Instead, Bishop "nosed over" the plane, descending steadily toward the office tower without making any evasive maneuvers.

No one else was hurt.

In a note, Bishop claimed sympathy for terrorists and made dark threats.

"You will pay -- God help you -- and I will make you pay!" Bishop wrote in a two-page letter found in the Cessna.

But authorities and the boy's mother saw in the letter a confused and delusional teenager, not a terrorist.

"The investigation has substantiated and determined that Charles Bishop acted alone in stealing the referenced aircraft with intent to commit suicide," the FDLE report concluded. -- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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