The incident occurred Saturday at about 5:15 p.m. when only 50 persons were in the building, Tampa is 80 miles west of Downtown Orlando.

Had the crash occurred during a regular work week, 2,500 employees who work in the building at 101 E. Kennedy Blvd. would have been at risk. Bank of America Plaza has 95 tenants and 93% occupied, Michael J. Hoffman, senior leasing manager, Insignia/ESG Inc., tells GlobeSt.com.

The FBI, Federal Aviation Administration and Florida Department of Law Enforcement are assessing the destruction this week from the Jan. 5 solo assault by Charles J. Bishop of Palm Harbor, FL. No official estimate of the damage has been made.

But insurance industry estimators tell GlobeSt.com it may take constructors most of this year to repair all of the damage to the white marble façade structure whose typical floor pads are 20,155 sf.

Authorities say Bishop, a ninth-grade honors student, stole a two-year-old, $180,000 Cessna 172R-N2371N from National Aviation Holding Inc. at St Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. He flew into military air space at nearby MacDill Air Force Base before crashing into the office tower and killing himself.

Bishop left a handwritten suicide note that purportedly stated he committed the act to show his support for global murderer Osama bin Laden.

Bishop's grandmother had taken him to the flight school for a lesson. The teenager had been taking lessons since March 2001 and had logged in six hours of flight time.

None of the weekend cleanup crews or tenants in the building were injured. The four-seater, 770-pound plane smashed into the 577-foot tall building between the 28th and 29th floors, demolishing a law office tenant's quarters and wrecking common maintenance areas, authorities confirm.

Offices above the 29th floor and those below the 28th floor were not damaged. Tenants continue to occupy those quarters.

Officials at Insignia/ESG Inc., which manages Bank of America Plaza at 101 E. Kennedy Blvd., couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline to learn the occupancy level and number of tenants in the building.

Instant Insights /

GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Tampa Suicide Air Crash Damages Expected to Top $2 Mil

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