Man who swiped, crashed plane identified

A man who stole a plane and flew it for about an hour Friday evening over Puget Sound in Washington state before crashing on an island has been identified as Richard Russell, according to a law enforcement official.

Russell, a ground service agent at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, took off around 8 p.m. on an unauthorized flight, delaying dozens of airplanes as the airport enforced a temporary ground stop.

He flew around the SeattleTacoma area, chatting sometimes calmly and sometimes in a frenzied stream of consciousness with air traffic controllers who tried to guide him to a safe landing. But the plane came down in a fiery crash on Ketron Island in Puget Sound, about 30 miles from the airport.

Alaska Airlines said in a statement that the person who took the plane was employed by Horizon Air, a subsidiary.

“I want to share how incredibly sad all of us at Alaska are about this incident,” Brad Tilden, CEO of Alaska Air Group, said Saturday. “Our heart is heavy for the family and friends of the person involved.”

Recordings of Russell’s conversation with controllers reveal that he was admiring the view of the Olympic Mountains at sunset. He said he hoped to have a “moment of serenity” in the air but lamented that the sights “went by so fast.”

Debra Eckrote, chief of the northwest regional office of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Saturday that it was conceivable that a ground service agent would have access to aircraft.

“They don’t necessarily use a key, so there’s switches that they use to start the aircraft,” she said. “So if the person has basic understanding — from what I understand he was support personnel, ground personnel — they probably do have at least a basic understanding on how to start the aircraft.”

Alaska Airlines officials said Russell had worked for Horizon for 3 ½ years and was re- sponsible for handling luggage and cargo and for towing aircraft. He had worked his shift Friday. Russell had previously undergone a background check, Tilden said.

Rick Christenson, an operational supervisor with Horizon, said that while he had met Russell only in passing, “I do remember him as a nice, quiet young man.” He added that Russell’s ability to fly might have come from “flight simulator games.”

The FBI is leading an investigation into the episode.