Audacious, alarming theft
Worker’s fatal flight shows airport security vulnerability
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Investigators are piecing together how an airline ground agent working his regular shift stole an empty Horizon Air turboprop plane, took off from SeaTac International Airport and flew for about an hour before fatally crashing on a small island in the Puget Sound while being chased by military jets that had scrambled to intercept the aircraft.
Officials said Saturday that the man was a 3 -year Horizon employee and had clearance to be among aircraft, but that to their knowledge, he wasn’t a licensed pilot. The 29-yearold man used a machine called a pushback tractor to first maneuver the Horizon Air Q400 so he could board and then take off Friday evening, authorities added.
A U.S. official briefed on the matter told The Associated Press the man was Richard Russell; the man was confirmed killed.
It’s unclear how the man attained the skills to do loops in the aircraft before crashing, authorities said.
Officials said it did not appear that the fighter jets played a role in the crash. In a news release issued Saturday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said two F-15C alert aircraft were scrambled from Portland, Oregon, but did not fire on the plane.
The bizarre incident involving a worker who authorities said was suicidal points to one of the biggest potential perils for commercial air travel: airline or airport employees causing mayhem.
“The greatest threat we have to aviation is the insider threat,” Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and transportationsecurity expert, told the AP. “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.”
Seattle FBI agent in charge Jay Tabb Jr. said the man’s co-workers and family members were being interviewed.
There was no connection The Horizon Air turboprop plane stolen from Sea-Tac International Airport flies over Eatonville, Wash., on Friday evening. The airport worker flew for an hour, doing loops and talking with an air traffic controller, before crashing on a Puget Sound island. The photo is taken from video. Smoke rises from the site where the stolen plane crashed on Ketron Island in Puget Sound. A law enforcement official said the bizarre incident had no connection to terrorism. to terrorism, said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County sheriff’s department.
Southers, the aviationsecurity expert, said the man could have caused mass destruction. “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,” Southers said.
Gary Beck, CEO of Horizon Air, said it wasn’t clear how the man knew to start the engine, which requires a series of switches and levers.
The man could be heard on audio recordings telling air traffic controllers that he is “just a broken guy.” An air traffic controller tried to persuade the man to land the plane.
“There is a runway just off
to your right side in about a mile,” the controller said, referring to an airfield at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
“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?”
Later the man said: “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.”
Alaska Airlines said the man was a ground service agent employed by Horizon. Those employees direct aircraft for takeoff and gate approach, de-ice planes and handle baggage.
A social-media account for Russell says he is from Wasilla, Alaska, lives in Sumner, Washington, and was married in 2012.
In a humorous YouTube video he posted last year, he talked about his job, saying: “I lift a lot of bags. Like a lot of bags. So many bags.”