How could an airline worker steal a plane?
OLYMPIA: US investigators are piecing together how an airline ground agent stole an empty commercial plane from Seattle’s international airport and got it up in the air before doing acrobatic tricks while being chased by military jets.
After about an hour of flying, the 29yearold crashed into a small island.
Officials said yesterday he was a three and ahalfyear Horizon Airlines employee and had clearance to be among aircraft, but to their knowledge, was not a licensed pilot.
An official briefed on the matter said the man was Richard Russell.
He used a pushback tractor to first manoeuvre the aircraft, which was in a maintenance area, so he could board and then take off on Friday evening (local time), authorities said.
Astonishing video showed the Horizon Air Q400, a turboprop plane that seats 76 people, doing large loops and other dangerous manoeuvres as the sun set on Puget Sound.
Two F15C aircraft were scrambled from Portland and pursued the plane but authorities say they did not fire on it before it crashed on tiny Ketron Island.
Russell told air traffic controllers that he was ‘‘just a broken guy’’.
One controller tried to convince him to land the plane. ‘‘There is a runway just off to your right side in about a mile,’’ the controller says, referring to an airfield at Joint Base LewisMcChord.
‘‘Oh man. Those guys will rough me up if I try and land there,’’ the man responded, later adding ‘‘This is probably jail time for life, huh?’’
‘‘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.’’
Officials from Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air said they were still working with authorities to find out what happened.
‘‘The greatest threat we have to aviation is the insider threat,’’ Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and transportation security expert, said.
‘‘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.’’ — AP