Crash Into Miami Fed Believed Accident
A small plane crashed into the Federal Reserve Bank Building during a holiday party on Thursday night, killing the pilot, authorities said. No one inside the building was injured.
"It appears to be an accident," said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown in Washington.
More than 100 people including the bank's directors were in the one-story building when the experimental aircraft slammed into the northeast side, and burst into flames.
Brown said the FAA believes the plane was coming from Marathon in the Florida Keys and traveling to New Smyrna Beach on Florida's central east coast.
The plane crashed about three miles west of Miami International Airport, and the pilot contacted air traffic controllers there, airport spokeswoman Tere Estorino said.
"This is in flight path for Miami International Airport," Miami-Dade Police Det. Joey Giordano told CBS Radio News. "We're not sure if this plane came from the international airport being that it's a small experimental plane."
The aircraft, a Four Winds 192 made in July, was flying north before making a sharp turn southeast and crashing, said Alan Yurman, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. Witnesses did not report seeing smoke from the engine, he said.
"One of the witnesses said they saw it at about 500 feet and it was wobbly," said Alan Yurman.
The pilot, who was the only one aboard, has not been identified, Yurman said.
The FBI was keeping in close contact with investigators, said FBI Miami spokeswoman Judy Orihuela.
"There is only some fire damage to the Federal Reserve but it's structurally sound," Fire-Rescue spokesman Louis Fernandez told CBS station WFOR-TV. "However there were a lot of people in there who needed to be evacuated."
When the plane hit, Jay Curry, vice president and branch manager, was attending a holiday party along with current and former directors of the bank, a branch of the Federal Reserve in Atlanta.
"When we first came out of and walked around the side, it was really hard to determine that it was a plane," Curry said.
Some windows were broken but there appeared to be no structural damage to the building.
The bank is just north of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military activities in 32 nations and 12 dependencies in Latin America and the Caribbean.