Details emerge about man who stole aircraft
health issues among airline It was worth it, he says, to workers nearly 17 years after conveniently travel to Alaska, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. where he grew up, to visit
It has also suggested that family.
Russell was more complicated Speculation has swirled than the easygoing persona over Russell’s intent. He could of his known online foot- have envisioned an aerial joyprint. Now a family is left to ride and return to the ground. reckon with tragedy, while Or he could have had grim strangers find grim inspira- plans to take his own life. Rustion in his final act. sell told air traffic controllers
Public acts of violence — that he was a “broken guy” like mass shootings — often with a “few screws loose,” but reflect the perpetrator’s trou- also that he wanted to avoid bled, dark past. injuring innocent people.
But there appears to be no His family’s brief statement manifesto, no digital trail of did not address any potential warning signs from Russell. mental health issues. AuthorHe grins in selfies at work. ities described him as “suiHe and wife Hannah started cidal.” a bakery in Oregon in their How did he learn to fly early 20s, according to a 2012 like that? story in a local paper depictIt’s not clear. takeoff. ing a happy, determined couAuthorities said they did
He spun a plane around ple. In one blog, he describes not believe he had a pilot’s Friday evening without rais- aspirations to land a managelicense. Gary Beck, the chief ing suspicion and climbed ment job or join the military. executive of Horizon Air, aboard with 76 empty seats And in recordings of contold reporters Saturday that behind him. He would have versations with air traffic con- the acrobatics and maneuflipped overhead switches trollers, Russell jokes and vers, including barrel rolls and set the propellers of the laughs, though he is at times and one loop that brought Bombardier Q400 spinning contemplative and raw. He Russell feet from the water’s before he roared away from appears regretful about the surface, were “incredible.” Seattle-Tacoma International pain he knows will inevitaRussell told controllers Airport. bly visit his family. mid-flight that he played
It’s not clear whether RusThe Russell family released video games in preparation, sell, 29, had ever really flown a statement Saturday evening, but it was not clear whether a plane before. But that flight saying they were “stunned he meant flight simulators — was his last. and heartbroken” over the some of which are commer
Russell flew wild loops over incident and the loss of a cially available and depict Puget Sound, screamed low man they called Beebo. exhaustive and realistic meaover frightened onlookers “It may seem difficult for sures to start an aircraft. and had existential — and, those watching at home to His conversation with at turns, bizarre — chats with believe, but Beebo was a controllers reveals limited air traffic controllers as two warm, compassionate man. experience. At one point, Air Force F-15 jets gave chase. It is impossible to encom- he explains he doesn’t know Then, about an hour after he pass who he was in a press how to follow instructions took off, Russell plunged into release. He was a faithful husto “punch in” data or how sparsely populated Ketron band, a loving son, and a to assess his fuel consumpIsland 25 miles southwest good friend,” the family said tion after takeoff. of the airport, sparking an in the statement, read by Videos posted to social intense fire. friend Mike Mathews, ABC media show the other side
He is presumed dead in reported. of his skills. He tilts the wings the crash, but no one else In a video he posted for a and rumbles low over Puget is thought to be injured or college class in December, Sound. killed, and the fighter jets Russell jokes about the mun“To be honest with you, did not fire on him, author- dane duties of his job. commercial aircraft are comities said. The FBI is inves“I lift a lot of bags. Like a plex machines. They’re not tigating the stunning heist, lot of bags. So many bags,” he as easy to fly as, say, a Cessna which has raised concerns says. Someone plucks a bag 150,” Beck said. “I don’t about the security of com- off a conveyor belt. “Oh, a know how he achieved the mercial aircraft and mental purple one!” Russell exclaims. experience that he did.” OLYMPIA, WASH. — The hardest part of stealing a com- mercial plane from an inter- national airport was already over for Richard Russell. Russell, a ground services worker for Horizon Air, was permitted to get very close to passenger aircraft. And part of his job was to drive the tractor that backed the aircraft into position for