Theft of empty aeroplane highlights potential dangers of airport employees causing crashes

THE THEFT of an empty plane by an airline worker who performed dangerous loops before crashing into a remote island in Puget Sound in Washington state has illustrated the potential perils of airline or airport employees causing mayhem.

Video footage shows a 76-seater Horizon Air Q400 aircraft which was stolen from Sea-Tac International Airport carrying out large loops and other dangerous manoeuvres as the sun set on Puget Sound near Seattle. The flight lasted about 75 minutes, and ended when the pilot, named by sources as Richard Russell, crashed into the small island after being chased by military jets.

The two F-15C aircraft scrambled from Portland did not fire on the plane, authorities said.

Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and transportation security expert, said: “The greatest threat we have to aviation is the insider threat.

“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.”

Mr Southers said the man could have caused mass destruction.

He said: “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.”

Officials said the man had worked with Horizon for threeand-a-half years, and had clearance to be among aircraft. To their knowledge, he was not a licensed pilot, and he took the empty turboprop plane from a maintenance area.

It is unclear how Mr Russell attained the skills to carry out loops in the aircraft. Ground service agents direct aircraft for take-off and gate approach and de-ice planes, as well as handle baggage.