Pilot crashes plane in suicide attack on tax office

A SOFTWARE engineer who was furious with the US tax agency crashed his small plane into an office building in an apparent suicide attack.

The crash in Austin, Texas, set off a raging fire that sent the tax workers running for their lives.

At least one person in the building – which has 200 staff – was still missing today and the pilot was presumed dead, authorities said.

Emergency crews later found a body in the wreckage of the building, but police would not say whether it was the pilot, identified as Joseph Stack, 53.

Officials said that before taking off, Stack apparently set fire to his house and posted a long anti-government criticism on the internet. It was dated yesterday and signed “Joe Stack (1956-2010)”.

In it, he cited run-ins with the Internal Revenue Service and ranted about corporate America’s “thugs and plunderers”.