Student pilot buzzed MacDill before crash

A report says Charles Bishop flew close to the control tower and two tankers before crashing into a downtown Tampa building.

By JEAN HELLER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 12, 2002

TAMPA -- Student pilot Charles Bishop buzzed the MacDill Air Force Base control tower and two fully loaded tanker aircraft in January before he slammed his stolen single-engine airplane into the side of a downtown building.

A National Transportation Safety Board report issued Monday disclosed that the aerial odyssey of the Palm Harbor teenager -- from St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport to the 28th floor of the Bank of America tower in Tampa -- took him much closer to the home of Central Command than previously known.

While the report does not speculate on Bishop's intended target, it indicates that the interception of a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter might have been the factor that turned Bishop away from MacDill.

The NTSB report does not assign specific blame in the incident, but it flatly refers to the Cessna as being "operated by a student pilot for the purpose of commiting suicide."

Air traffic controllers at MacDill told the NTSB that Bishop's stolen four-seat Cessna 172 arrived in their airspace at an altitude of 3,700 feet minutes after it took off from the mid Pinellas airport at 4:50 p.m.

"The controllers stated that they could not see the airplane but could hear it, until it passed the tower cab in front and below their windows, and then pulled up," the NTSB's findings of fact state. The MacDill tower roof is 123.7 feet above sea level.

"The airplane proceeded towards the flight line where two KC-135 tanker airplanes were parked, loaded with fuel, and passed over them within 75 to 100 feet," the report said. "The airplane then turned crosswind as if attempting to return (to the tankers) when the U.S. Coast Guard helicopter appeared, and the airplane proceeded northeast toward Tampa."

Defense officials say MacDill is guarded by 50-caliber machine guns, which easily could have destroyed the airplane and 15-year-old Bishop. The weapons are staffed around the clock.

MacDill officials said at the time they didn't believe the Cessna had hostile intentions, but they didn't say why. The base public information office was closed Monday for the Veterans Day holiday.

"I don't think we knew before what altitude Bishop was at when he flew over MacDill, but they had the ability to shoot him down and chose not to," said Joe Formoso, head of the controllers association at Tampa International Airport.

"We saw him on radar, but we couldn't tell anyone his exact location because he never had his transponder on," Formoso said.

A basic transponder, such as Bishop's plane carried, would have fed data to control radar on the Cessna's altitude and speed. The Federal Aviation Administration requires working transponders in controlled airspace around commercial airports.

The saga began unfolding shortly before 5 p.m. Jan. 5, less than four months after terrorists flew commercial aircraft into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon.

Bishop, who had a total of 19.3 hours of flight time, all with an instructor aboard, showed up at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport as his instructor was finishing up with another student. The instructor told federal investigators that he sent Bishop to check out his airplane and wait.

A lineman who was fueling another aircraft said he saw Bishop walking toward the Cessna and thought nothing of it because he recognized the student. The lineman said he parked his truck about 50 feet from the Cessna and heard the engine straining to start. He walked toward the small plane and got close enough to touch the wingtip when the engine kicked over.

He watched Bishop taxi and take off, then lost sight of the aircraft.

Neither the instructor nor the lineman was identified in the NTSB report.

Several minutes later, MacDill controllers asked the commander of a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter to intercept the Cessna and determine its intentions. At the time, the controllers said, the small plane was over several aircraft parked on the base. By the time the chopper caught up with Bishop, he was headed northeast toward downtown Tampa.

"Once in contact, they signaled the Cessna with hand/arm gestures to land the airplane as they were approaching Peter O. Knight Airport," the NTSB report said. "... They did see some movement from the Cessna's occupant, but were 400 to 500 feet away ... and therefore could not make out what the movement was. The Cessna then flew steadily and directly into the Bank of America building."

The collision was recorded at 5:03 p.m.

The NTSB report does not address the Cessna's encounter with a Southwest Airlines flight leaving Tampa International Airport.

"The plane was climbing out when the pilot saw him out of the corner of his eye at the last minute," Formoso said. "He leveled off. The Southwest plane passed beneath the Cessna by 500 feet or so, which is legal separation. But had he not seen the plane, I don't know what might have happened."

At the time of the incident, there were no jet fighters stationed at MacDill to intercept errant aircraft. Two F-15s scrambled from Homestead Air Force base, 200 miles to the south, but the incident was over before they got into the air.

Ten days after the incident, two F-15s were reassigned to MacDill to fly air combat patrols over the base.

Bishop's family later filed a $70-million lawsuit in Hillsborough County Circuit Court against the manufacturer of the acne medication Accutane, saying it had caused Bishop to become severely psychotic.

"This child was a happy, well-balanced, forward-thinking child who had a great deal to live for," Bishop's mother, Julia, said at the time. "This is psychotic. And the only conclusion that we've been able to draw is the Accutane poisoned him."

Toxicology tests from the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner showed no sign of Accutane in Bishop's system.

Accutane's manufacturer, Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., said scientists have not tied Accutane to depression or suicide.

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