 The plane's wreckage in the Bank of America building in Tampa, Florida. | |
| Incident | |
|---|---|
| Date | January 5, 2002 |
| Summary | Aircraft theft and suicide by pilot |
| Site | Tampa, Florida, U.S. 27°56′49″N 82°27′32″W / 27.947°N 82.459°W |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Cessna 172 |
| Operator | Privately owned |
| Registration | N2371N |
| Occupants | 1 |
| Crew | 1 |
| Fatalities | 1 |
| Survivors | 0 |
On January 5, 2002, Charles J. Bishop, a high-school student of East Lake High School in Tarpon Springs, Florida, United States, stole a Cessna 172 light aircraft and crashed it into the side of the Bank of America Tower in downtown Tampa, Florida. The impact killed the teenager and damaged an office room, but there were no other injuries.
Bishop had been inspired by the September 11 attacks; he had left a suicide note crediting Osama bin Laden for the attacks and praising it as a justified response to actions against the Palestinians and Iraqis and said he (Bishop) was acting on behalf of Al Qaeda, from whom he had turned down help. As officials could find no other evidence of any connections, terrorism as a motive was ruled out, and they suggested that the crash was an apparent suicide. Bishop's mother filed, then dropped, a lawsuit claiming that psychological side effects from isotretinoin caused the incident. Bishop used isotretinoin, which is known to induce depression and rarely suicidal actions, as an acne medicine.