plowed into the building, blew out the windows and there are no reports at this point of how many people might have been injured or killed. again, a pretty big mystery underway with this, an accident, was was this an accident, was it a terror attack? we don t know. jamie: and just to give you context for people who may know the area, it s northwest austin, it did, as you said, happen approximately 10:00 a.m. local, and as you said, smoke could be seen, and it s happening near mopac and highway 183, where now traffic is being diverted. there was another report also in texas about a train derailment earlier that might have had some chemical issues. we re not hearing anything about danger in the area from this fire, from this smoke that might cause evacuations beyond the immediate area, but as a precautionary measure, they are diverting traffic around this area at this time as they try to get what is now being reported as a 2-alarm fire under control, but the smoke continues to billow
what it appears to be an office building in austin, texas. there are reports that people are trapped on the second floor of that building. i know that harris faulkner has been making some phone calls for us. harris, what are you hearing? well, there s a realty shop right across, i should say, corporation right across the street, west walters realty, there was also a fabric store just two doors down. in talking with people from both locations, this smoke appears to be thinning out. that is the good news. but the description is looks like something hit it, flames leaping out, papers, insulation, blinds, very, very frightening situation. back to you guys. jamie: harris, thanks, because we have wes walters on the phone from wes walters realty, right across the street from this fire in austin, that a small plane has crashed into a seven story office building. wes, what can you tell us about what you ve seen and heard and how everyone is doing in the area? well, i didn t hear
hearing from peter goelz formerly of the ntsb, the investigation will take time, jon. but that s good context about the airport and the area. and as you can see, the smoke is still coming from this building, but as wes walters from across the street, wes walters realty was saying, he does see people standing around in the parking lot there, and so it does appear that the havingiation has been successful, except for that one report that there may be two people unaccounted for, and we ll have to wait to find out about that. jon, still, no information about the exact aircraft, though although what you were hearing from tom sullivan, it s interesting if the plane left that airport, you could pretty much narrow it down to the type of aircraft. jon: tom is also pointing me to a fedex c20 #, a single engine turboprop that is listed as delayed. it was scheduled to land and is listed as delayed. again, we do not know that that is the foreclosure plane involved here.
addition to housing the local office of the fbi, we can assume that there are other offices in play, plus people driving in the area, and jon, you re a pilot, so basically, what are the options of what can happen? jon: well, we ll get to that in just a moment. robert mark is with us on the phone, he s a commercial pilot, also editor of jetline.com. robert, when you see pictures like this, and again, the indications are that this was a relatively small single engine airplane, what are the first thoughts that come to your mind? i think the first thought that comes to my mind is there was something up with the pilot almost perhaps more than the airplane, but of course we don t know the qualifications of the pilot yet, but i think that s a real concern, because there are other flat places to try to put it down, even on the frontage road there in front of the building, rather than taking a direct hit into a building. that s pretty odd.
know, again, set his own house on fire then jumped into a plane and had this kind of an accident, it does, well, it puts a lot of facts together, i guess. exactly. jon: is what i m saying. there is some reporting that this was a cherokee 140. jamie is just showing that to me on our set here, cherokee 140 a small single-engine plane. but, again, when you talk about some of these planes carrying 40, 50 gallons of fuel or more, i mean, imagine what you could do if you took a 5-gallon fuel tank, 5-gallon fuel tank, lit it and threw it into an office building. this could have been upwards of ten times as much fuel burning in that building in austin, texas. right. and not to mention just the force of the aircraft flying into the building. jon: yeah. i m just curious to ask you if i can, scott, about what would be going on in the area