AIRPLANE THEFT SHOWS POTENTIAL DANGERS FROM AIRLINE WORKERS
OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON— The theft of an empty plane by an airline worker who performed dangerous loops before crashing into a remote island in Puget Sound illustrates what aviation experts have long known: One of the biggest potential perils for commercial air travel is airline or airport employees causing mayhem.
“The greatest threat we have to aviation is the insider threat,” said Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and transportation security expert.
“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,” Southers pointed out.
According to authorities, the employee commandeered an empty Bombardier Q400, a 33-meter-long turboprop aircraft, on Friday night from a maintenance area at SeattleTacoma International Airport.
Video showed the 76-seat plane of Horizon Airlines doing large loops and other dangerous maneuvers as the sun set on Puget Sound.
The 75-minute flight ended when the plane crashed on Ketron Island, about 40 kilometers to the southwest, after it was chased by military jets.
The worker was presumed to have died in the crash, but authorities said the two F-15C fighter jets scrambled from Portland, Oregon, didn’t fire at the plane.
“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.
Richard Russell
The airline worker has not been officially named by authorities, but social media posts have identified him as Richard Russell, who liked to be called Beebo.
According to a webpage he set up for a college communications class, Russell described himself as a 29-year-old man living in Sumner, Washington, who was born in Key West, Florida, and moved to Wasilla, Alaska, when he was 7 years old.
Russell’s family and multiple news media reported that he once ran a bakery with his wife and enjoyed the benefits that came with his job to travel the world.
Russell worked for Horizon Air, a sister carrier of Alaska Airlines, during the past three and a half years as a ground service agent who helped baggage handlers. As a member of Horizon’s tow team, he directed aircraft for takeoff and gate approach on the tarmac.
Officials said Russell wasn’t a licensed pilot, though they had no explanation how he attained the skills to do aerial stunts.
Gary Beck, CEO of Horizon Air, said it also wasn’t clear how the man knew to start the engine, which required a series of switches and levers.
At a news conference, officials from Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air said they were working with authorities.
Audio recordings
“Last night’s event is going to push us to learn what we can from this tragedy so that we can ensure this does not happen again at Alaska Air Group or at any other airline,” said Brad Tilden, CEO of Alaska Airlines.
Investigators are awaiting the recovery of both the cock- pit voice recorder and the event data recorder from the plane.
Russell could be heard on audio recordings talking to air traffic controllers, who tried to persuade him into landing the airplane.
“There is a runway just off to your right side in about a mile,” the controller says, referring to an airfield at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
“Oh man. Those guys will rough me up if I try and land there . . . This is probably jail time for life, huh?” Russell responded.
Later Russell 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.”
According to the local sheriff’s department, he appeared to have acted alone and was suicidal.
In a video posted on YouTube last December, Russell shows luggage coming off and being loaded onto aircraft, and describes what the life of a ground service agent can entail.
Adventures with wife
“That means I lift a lot of bags, like a lot of bags, so many bags,” he says, adding, “it allows me to do some pretty cool things, too.”
There are then photos of trips he took with his wife, including flying over Alaskan fjords, visiting lavender fields in France, touring in Yucatan, Mexico, and attending a hurling match in Dublin, Ireland.
According to his social media posts, Russell met his wife in Oregon in 2010.
“We were married one year later, and one month after that we opened a bakery which we successfully ran for 3 years,” he wrote on his webpage. “We consider ourselves bakery connoisseurs and have to try a new one every place we go.”
The couple later moved to Washington state, where Russell got a job with Horizon Air.
The Seattle Times quoted Rick Christenson, a Horizon Air supervisor who retired in May, as saying Russell was a wellliked, quiet person.
Russell’s family said in a statement they were stunned and heartbroken. They referenced the audio recordings and said it was clear Russell didn’t intend to harm anyone and “he was right in saying that there are so many people who loved him.”
“It may seem difficult for those watching at home to believe, but Beebo was a warm, compassionate man,” the statement said.