Employee’s plane theft stunt ends in f lames

AN AIRLINE baggage handler is presumed dead after stealing a plane from his employers and crashing in a ball of flames into an island in Washington state in the north-west of the US.

The married 29-year-old, named locally as Richard Russell, performed barrel rolls and loop-the-loops during a 20-minute flight after taking the Horizon Air Bombardier Q400 aircraft from SeaTac Airport in Seattle on Friday night. At one point, the man asked air-traffic controllers: ‘Do you think if I land this successfully Alaska [Airlines] will give me a job as a pilot?’

Amid fears that the 76-seater plane could be used in a terrorist attack, F-15 fighter jets were scrambled to intercept it.

The plane, which was not carrying passengers, plunged into Ketron Island, about 30 miles from the airport.

Local Sheriff Paul Pastor said the incident was not terror related, adding: ‘Most terrorists don’t do loops over the water.’