Authorities probe how airline employee could steal plane
Investigators are piecing together how an airline ground agent working his regular shift stole an empty Horizon Air turboprop plane, took off from Sea- Tac International Airport and fatally crashed into a small island in Puget Sound after being chased by military jets that were quickly scrambled to intercept the aircraft.
Officials said Saturday that the man was a 31⁄ 2- 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 aircraft so he could board and then take off Friday evening, authorities said.
It’s unclear how he attained the skills to do loops in the aircraft before crashing about an hour after taking off into a small island in Puget Sound, authorities said. He crashed nearly an hour after the plane was taken from a maintenance area, though officials said that it did not appear that the fighter jets were involved in the crash of the aircraft. In a news release issued Saturday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said two F- 15C alert aircraft were scrambled from Portland but did not fire upon the plane.
At a news conference in Seattle- Tacoma International Airport, officials from Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air said they are still working closely with authorities as they investigate what happened.