Seattle plane thief's apparent knowledge of loops, other dangerous maneuvers is a mystery: investigators
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The 29-year-old man who stole a Horizon Air turboprop plane from Sea-Tac International Airport and crashed it on an island in Puget Sound on Friday night performed a series of loops and said he'd attempt a barrel roll -- and now, investigators say they're trying to learn how he attained the skill to perform those dangerous maneuvers.
“If he had the skill set to do loops with a plane like this, he certainly had the capacity to fly it into a building and kill people on the ground,” said Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and transportation security expert.
Officials said Richard Russell — who was a football player, wrestler and discus thrower at Wasilla High School in Alaska — was a 3 1/2-year Horizon employee and had clearance to be among aircraft, but that to their knowledge, he wasn’t a licensed pilot. He took the empty plane from a maintenance area.
Alaska Airlines said the suspect was a ground service agent employed by Horizon. Those employees direct aircraft for takeoff and gate approach and de-ice planes, as well as handle baggage.Gary Beck, CEO of Horizon Air, said it wasn’t clear how the man knew to start the engine, which requires a series of switches and levers.
“I think I'm going to try to do a barrel roll, and if that goes good I'll go nose down and call it a night,” Richard Russell said from the cockpit, according to a recording of his conversation with the controller.
“The greatest threat we have to aviation is the insider threat,” said Southers. “Here we have an employee who was vetted to the level to have access to the aircraft and had a skill set proficient enough to take off with that plane.”
Video showed the Horizon Air Q400, a turboprop plane that seats 76 people, doing large loops and other dangerous maneuvers as the sun set on Puget Sound. The flight lasted about 75 minutes, and ended Friday night when Russell crashed into the small island after being chased by military jets. The two F-15C aircraft scrambled from Portland didn’t fire the plane, authorities said.
The plane crashed on tiny Ketron Island, southwest of Tacoma, Washington. Video showed fiery flames amid trees on the island, which is sparsely populated and only accessible by ferry. Investigators expect they will be able to recover both the cockpit voice recorder and the event data recorder from the plane.
An air traffic controller was heard in audio recordings trying to persuade him to land the airplane.
“There is a runway just off to your right side in about a mile,” the controller said, referring to an airfield at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
“Oh man. Those guys will rough me up if I try and land there,” Russell responded, later adding, “This is probably jail time for life, huh?”
Later Russell said: “I’ve got a lot of people that care about me. It’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this ... Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess.”
Russell went by “Beebo” on social media, and on his Facebook page, which had limited public access. He said he was from Wasilla, Alaska, lived in Sumner, Washington, and was married in 2012.
In a humorous YouTube video he posted last year, he talked about his job and included videos and photos of his various travels.
“I lift a lot of bags. Like a lot of bags. So many bags,” he said.
The airline mechanic’s stunt left many who knew him beyond shock.
Track and field coach Gary Howell from his high school said he was “absolutely the kind of kid you want on your team.”
“He had that energy, that vibrance,” Howell said. “He was that kid you high-five in the hallway even if you don’t know him.”
Why do I hear Frank Sinatra's 'I did it my way' in my head?
I think this will end up being a bit of a head scrathcer for the authorities to try and un-ravel.
This story makes me sad. It sounds like he had so much potential. Mental health does not discriminate.
Russell said: “I’ve got a lot of people that care about me. It’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this ... Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess.”
Hell of a time to come to that conclusion eh ?
RIP flyboy That was one hell of an early exit !
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Yep mental illness doesn't discriminate, is widespread and too often unrecognised and untreated.
My condolences to all he touched.
Is this the same guy who attributed his flying skills to playing video games ?
I believe so, though it wasn't mentioned specifically in this story.
i'm just a bit amazed that he had those skills from just a video game (or so it was claimed on the other article i think) - even if it was a flight simulator or something of that nature.
that's a shame and very sad.
Notice he could take off but didn't even attempt a landing......
Yes but he also did not head for anything to destroy either, My opinion he didn't think it through very well. It was the just to be the joy ride of his life.
When asked to land all he seemed concerned with was the police and his future. Doesn't sound like a terrorist to me , just some immature nut job with the desire and opportunity to steal and fly a plane. That ended badly for him. RIP
good point .. maybe he just wasn't so great at that part of the video game
Sounds like a "biplolar episode" to me ...... i think it was just sheer luck the guy didn't crash sooner.
Agreed, BI polar can do that to a person. I think it was lucky he ever got off the ground. And he'd probably have been better off if it hadn't.
My take when I listen to the audio is that his primary objective was suicide. At one point he says to the air traffic control rep that he is going to do a barrel roll and if that goes well then he's going to do a nose dive and call it a night. Doing a nose dive is pretty much what he did.
Perhaps but daayum, there are much easier ways to do that. Which is why i'm guessing something like bipolarity was involved.
I mean really ......guy feels like committing suicide today so decides to go steal a plane, do some combat maneuvers and then auger it in ..... yeah, why not?
No matter which type of mental illness affecting him, it's still sad. There's something going in our society that is giving rise to extreme acts such as this one.
Yes, the inability to see limits that normal people see. Everything is not fair game, though it seems like many have forgotten that.