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| Richard Russell, a 29 year old Air ground service employee working at Horizon Air, hijacked an empty 76-seater turboprop Bombardier Q400, belonging to Alaska Airlines' sister carrier Horizon Air and took off from Seattle Airport. at 7:32 p.m. local time Friday Aug. 10, 2018, then crashed on Ketron Island, a small, sparsely populated island about 40 miles away from the Seattle Airport one hour later |
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| Airline worker who stole plane told air traffic controllers: 'I don't want to hurt no one' (ABC News) |
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| The stolen airplane crashed on Ketron Island, a small, sparsely populated island about 40 miles away from the Seattle Airport . |
VietPress USA (Aug. 11, 2018): Seattle International Airport Authority confirmed that last Friday night on August 10, 2018 at around 8pm local time , Mr. Richard Russell, a 29 year old Air ground service employee working with Horizon Air, had hijacked an empty 76-seater turboprop Bombardier Q400, belonging to Alaska Airlines' sister carrier Horizon Air and took off from Seattle Airport.
Authorities initially said Hijacker Richard Russell was a mechanic, but officials said on Saturday that he was a Horizon Air employee and had clearance to be among aircraft. Hijacker Richard Russell was not a licensed pilot, but employees with such clearance normally direct aircraft for takeoff or landing and gate approach and de-ice airplanes.
The Horizon Air turboprop plane took off from the runway at 7:32 p.m. local time Friday, with the man identified as Richard Russell behind the controls and no one else on board, officials said
Hijacker Richard Russell used a machine called a pushback tractor to first manoeuvre the aircraft so he could board and then take off, authorities added.
Immediately North American Aerospace Defense Command quickly launched two Military F-15 fighter jets from Oregon to pursue the rogue stolen aircraft, but Hijacker Richard Russell made very dangerous performing stunts in the air.
Police said that after about one hour of flying and circling in the air, the stolen airplane crashed on Ketron Island, a small, sparsely populated island about 40 miles away from the Seattle Airport due to a lack of flying skills. The fighters jets were not involved in the crash, officials said.
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Airline worker who stole plane told air traffic controllers: 'I don't want to hurt no one'
Airline worker who stole plane told air traffic controllers: 'I don't want to hurt no one'originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
An airline employee stole an otherwise empty passenger plane from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday night and performed dangerous maneuvers in the sky before crashing on a nearby island about an hour later, officials said.
The employee, who was a ground services worker for Horizon Air, died. He was identified by a senior federal aviation source as Richard Russell, whom authorities described as a 29-year-old resident of Pierce County in Washington state.
The Horizon Air turboprop plane took off from the runway at 7:32 p.m. local time Friday, with the man identified as Russell behind the controls and no one else on board, officials said. The 76-seat airliner was captured on video doing giant loops in the air and other risky stunts during its hour-long flight.
North American Aerospace Defense Command quickly launched two F-15 fighter jets to pursue the rogue aircraft, a federal senior aviation source told ABC News. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration said it implemented a "groundstop" for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport as air traffic controllers "communicated with the individual who was flying the aircraft to try to help him land safely."
An hour after the unauthorized takeoff, the plane crashed on Ketron Island, a small, sparsely populated island about 40 miles away from the airport. The fighters jets were not involved in the crash, officials said.
Aerial footage of Ketron Island showed a large fiery blaze where the plane crashed. No one on the ground was harmed and no buildings were damaged, officials said.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport flights were delayed or diverted Friday night due to the incident, with normal operations resuming by around 1 a.m., officials said.
"This might have been a joyride gone terribly wrong," said Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor.
'We don't know how he learned to do that'
Airline officials are unsure how Russell learned to operate a plane, much less perform flying stunts. There are many switches and levers to even start a plane, Horizon Air CEO Gary Beck told reporters at a news conference Saturday.
"We don’t know how he learned to do that." Beck said, adding that the man did perform some "incredible" maneuvers. "To our knowledge he did not have a pilot's license."
The man was authorized to be in the area of the airfield where the plane was parked for maintenance, officials said.
Beck said he and Brad Tilden, the CEO of Alaska Airlines, the parent company of Horizon Air, are working closely with the FBI, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration to better understand the circumstances of the unauthorized flight.
The FBI said it is leading an investigation into the incident, including interviewing the Russell's family and coworkers.
Debra Eckrote, the Western Pacific regional chief for the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators are searching through the plane wreckage to retrieve the flight data recorder, which could help determine a motive.
'I don't want to hurt no one'
Audio recordings of the Russell's exchange with air traffic controllers were posted on Broadcastify and confirmed by federal aviation sources as authentic. In the recordings, air traffic controllers can be heard trying to persuade him to land the plane and help him do so safely. They also had experienced pilots radio in to guide him on flying.
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