Plane thief’s remains are found on isle

The remains of an airline worker who stole and crashed a passenger plane have been found on an island in Puget Sound, officials say.

Investigators also said they have recovered the flight recorder and components of the cockpit voice recorder from the 76-seat Horizon Air Q400 flown by Richard Russell.

Russell (photo) swiped the commercial aircraft from the Seattle-Tacoma airport Friday and performed some startling acrobatic stunts before going down.

The Pierce County, Wash., medical examiner's office confirmed Sunday Russell died in the fiery wreckage, but investigators are unsure if the crash was deliberate or accidental.

“You couldn't even tell it was a plane except for some of the bigger sections, like the wing section,” Debra Eckrote of the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday, according to CNN. “Even the small sections, most of it doesn't resemble a plane.”

Russell, 29, flew the plane for 75 minutes before the crash. Observers wondered how, 17 years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, someone can simply take a passenger plane from a major U.S. airport.

He could have inflicted much more damage if he wanted to. Potential targets included tens of thousands of fans assembling at Safeco Field, about 12 miles away, for a soldout Pearl Jam concert.

As a flight controller tried to persuade him to safely land the plane, Russell wondered aloud about whether he had enough fuel to make it to the Olympic Mountains, spoke about the view, and said he had a lot of people who cared about him.

He also apologized for what he was doing. He complimented the controller. “You are very calm, collect, poised,” he said.