SEATTLE, Aug 12, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A 29-year-old “suicidal” airport worker
who commandeered an empty plane from Seattle’s main airport and took it on an
hour-long flight chased by F-15 fighter jets before crashing into a small
island did not commit any security violations, officials said Saturday.
Horizon Air employee Richard Russell told an air traffic controller he was
“just a broken man” minutes before dying late Friday in the Bombardier Q400
twin-engine turboprop plane, appearing to apologize for his actions. Law
enforcement officials identified him to US media.
Authorities ruled out any link to terror. But consternation grew over the
safety gaps that allowed an airport worker to easily gain access to a
commercial airliner and fly it over a major metropolitan area.
“Everybody’s stunned… that something like this would happen,” said
recently retired Horizon operational supervisor Rick Christenson. “How could
it? Everybody’s been through background checks.”
Russell “had access legitimately” to the plane, said Mike Ehl, director of
aviation operations at the airport in the northwestern US state of
Washington, adding that “no security violations were committed.”
Video taken by a bystander showed the 76-seat plane making a big, slow
loop-the-loop as US Air Force F-15 jets gave chase, then flying low over
Puget Sound before crashing into sparsely populated Ketron Island, setting
trees on fire.
“To our knowledge, he didn’t have a pilot’s license,” Gary Beck, CEO of
Alaska Airlines affiliate Horizon, told reporters.
“Commercial aircraft are complex machines… No idea how he achieved that
experience.”
But Russell’s role at Horizon, where he had worked since 2015, involved
towing aircraft as part of a two person team, in addition to loading and
unloading cargo and luggage and cleaning the aircraft, according to Beck.
“At this time, we believe he was the only one in the aircraft but of
course, we haven’t confirmed that at the crash site,” said Jay Tabb, chief of
the FBI’s Seattle division.
– Joyrider or suicidal? –
Ruling out a terror link, Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor noted that
“most terrorists don’t do loops over the water… This might have been a
joyride gone terribly wrong.”
Ed Troyer, of the sheriff’s office, described Russell as “suicidal.”
Russell lived locally and had acted alone. Initial information had said he
was an airline mechanic.
“He was a quiet guy. It seemed like he was well liked by the other
workers,” Christenson told The Seattle Times. “I feel really bad for Richard
and for his family. I hope they can make it through this.”
The plane was stolen around 8:00 pm (0300 GMT Saturday) and crashed 90
minutes later, officials said.
The sheriff’s office said the F-15s arrived minutes after the plane was
stolen and kept the aircraft “out of harm’s way and people on the ground
safe.”
The fighter jets flew at supersonic speed, triggering a boom first taken
to be an explosion, as they raced to intercept the plane.
President Donald Trump was briefed and the White House praised
authorities’ quick response to the crisis.
– ‘Broken guy’ –
John Waldron, who captured the plane’s loop-the-loop on video, told CNN he
was out for an evening stroll and initially thought the aircraft were
practicing for an air show.
He estimated that the plane, at its lowest point, was no more than 100
feet (30 meters) above the water.
As Russell nosedived toward the water, “We were all screaming, ‘Oh my god,
oh my god!’ and I was yelling, ‘Pull up, pull up!'” Christenson said.
In a conversation with the control tower, the pilot came across as
excitable, confused and even apologetic.
“Congratulations, you did it,” the control tower tells him, according to
an audio feed aired on CNN.
“Let’s turn around the air and land it and not hurt anybody on the
ground.”
“I don’t know, man,” the pilot answers. “I don’t want to. I was kind of
hoping that was going to be it, you know.”
During the conversation, the man says he had put some fuel in the plane
“to go check out the Olympics” — the Olympic Mountains that lie about 100
miles (160 kilometers) away.
But he later worried he was running low, saying the fuel had burned “quite
a bit faster than I expected.”
The control tower then urged him to land at a nearby military base.
“I wouldn’t want to do that. They probably have anti-aircraft,” he
responds.
“This is probably jail time for life, huh?” he later says, according to a
recording published by The Seattle Times.
“I’ve got a lot of people that care about me. It’s going to disappoint
them to hear that I did this,” he said.
“I would like to apologize to each and every one of them. Just a broken
guy, got a few screws loose, I guess. Never really knew it until now.”