Source: Texas plane may have been loaded with extra fuel

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cnn.org/2010/CRIME/02/19/texas.plane.crash/index.html?hpt=T2

Source: Texas plane may have been loaded with extra fuel

February 19, 2010 10:11 p.m. EST

Austin, Texas (CNN) -- The man who flew an airplane into a building housing an Internal Revenue Service office may have replaced some of its seats with a drum of fuel to cause maximum damage, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said Friday.

The official, who would not speak on the record because it is an ongoing case, said investigators have determined that the Piper Cherokee PA-28 had several seats removed and that a fuel drum was missing from the airport from which Andrew Joseph "Joe" Stack III took off Thursday morning.

"I think there is a good chance he might have put it on his plane," said the official, who cautioned that investigators were still working that lead and sifting through the crash site.

The single-engine plane has a fuel tank capacity of 38 gallons and is equipped with four seats, according to the Web site risingup.com.

[Obamanaut]

1. Is "may have been" as accurate as "some say"? Those phrases

don't lend themselves well to credibility.

[NNN0LHI]

2. The media was proclaiming this guy was a "lone wolf" hours after the plane hit

That doesn't lend themselves well to credibility either.

If this fellow did manage to get a 55 gallon drum of fuel onto his plane he had help. Too heavy for one person.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Don

[guardian]

3. ummmmmm

put the empty drum in the plane and then fill it in place

[NNN0LHI]

6. Workers at the airport didn't think something was amiss when he began pumping fuel into the cockpit?

I realize they are probably laid back and all down there but it seems like someone doing something like that would stand out like a sore thumb.

Be like seeing some guy at the gas station pumping his gas onto his front seat through the car window. Think someone might notice that?

Don

[guardian]

7. Very easy to do

Gas pumps at general aviation facilities are usually unattended. They have very long gas hoses to accommodate the need for clearance, long wingspans, and the need to fill up multiple tanks on both sides of the plane.

Any more conspiracy theories rocket scientist?

[backscatter712]

9. I think you're on to something.

I've been to a couple civil airports, and frequently, you're the only person around if things are slow.

He very easily could have put an empty drum into his plane, then filled it with gas if nobody was around.

[Obamanaut]

10. Put gas in the larger container 5 gallons at a time over a couple of days. n/t

[cali]

4. I don't think you can conclude that he had help

if he loaded that drum on his plane. Why couldn't he have used a piece of machinery to do it?
And honestly, he does come off as a lone wolf type- not to mention that there is no indication that there was anyone else involved. His screed reads like a lone wolf type.

[NNN0LHI]

5. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions.

That is a direct quote from his "manifesto", and that doesn't read like a "lone wolf" type to me. Unless these friends and the group of people he met were imaginary?

Don

[guardian]

8. Another thing

newspapers are notoriously inaccurate, and reporters notoriously stupid. So I question most anything reported by the news. It may not have been a 'drum' (i.e., 55 gal barrel) at all. May have been an extra fuel bladder taken from a maintenance shop. Basically this is a big flexible sack for gasoline.