Seattle plane thief was ‘suicidal’

Investigators are piecing together how an airline ground agent stole an empty plane from Seattle’s international airport.

Friends of Richard Russell console each other yesterday at the Orting Valley Police and Fire Department. Picture: AP

A 29-year-old “suicidal” airport worker who commandeered an empty plane from Seattle’s main airport and took it on an hour-long flight chased by fighter jets before crashing did not commit any security violations.

Horizon Air employee Richard Russell told an air-traffic controller he was “just a broken man” minutes before dying late on Friday (Saturday Australian time) in the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 twin-engine turboprop plane, appearing to apologise for his actions.

Authorities ruled out any link to terror. But consternation grew over the safety gaps that allowed an airport worker to gain access to a commercial airliner and fly it over a metropolitan area.

“Everybody’s stunned that something like this would happen,” said retired Horizon operations supervisor Rick Christenson. “How could it? Everybody’s been through background checks.”

Mr Russell had access legitimately to the plane at Seattle-­Tacoma International Airport, said Mike Ehl, director of aviation operations at the airport.

“No security violations were committed.”

The 76-seat plane made a big, slow loop-the-loop as US Air Force F-15 jets gave chase, then flew low over Puget Sound before crashing into sparsely populated Ketron Island, setting trees on fire.

Mr Russell puts the Dash 8 through a loop-the-loop over the water before crashing on Ketron Island on Saturday.

“To our knowledge, he didn’t have a pilot’s licence,” said Horizon chief executive Gary Beck.

“Commercial aircraft are complex machines … No idea how he achieved that experience.”

Mr Russell’s role at Horizon, where he had worked since 2015, involved towing aircraft as part of a two-person team, and loading and unloading cargo and luggage and cleaning the aircraft. Horizon is a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines.

“At this time, we believe he was the only one in the aircraft but of course, we haven’t confirmed that at the crash site,” said Jay Tabb, chief of the FBI’s Seattle division.

Ruling out a terror link, Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor noted that “most terrorists don’t do loops over the water … This might have been a joy ride gone terribly wrong”. Ed Troyer, of the sheriff’s office, described Mr Russell as “suicidal”, saying he had acted alone.

Mr Christenson told The Seattle Times: “He was a quiet guy. It seemed like he was well liked by the other workers.

“I feel really bad for Richard and for his family. I hope they can make it through this,” he said.

The plane was stolen at about 8pm (1pm Saturday AEST) and crashed 90 minutes later, officials said.

The sheriff’s office said the F-15s arrived minutes after the plane was stolen and kept the aircraft “out of harm’s way and people on the ground safe”. The fighter jets flew at supersonic speed, triggering a boom first taken to be an explosion, as they raced to intercept the plane.

Donald Trump was briefed and the White House praised authorities’ quick response to the crisis.

Richard Russell. Picture: AFP

John Waldron, who captured the plane’s loop-the-loop on video, told CNN he was out for an evening stroll and initially thought the aircraft were practising for an air show. He estimated the plane, at its lowest point, was no more than 30m above the water.

As Mr Russell nose-dived toward the water, “We were all screaming, ‘Oh my god, oh my god!’ and I was yelling, ‘Pull up, pull up!’,” Mr Christenson said.

In a conversation with the control tower, the pilot came across as excitable, confused and even apologetic. “Congratulations, you did it,” the control tower tells him, according to an audio feed aired on CNN. “Let’s turn around the air and land it and not hurt anybody on the ground.”

“I don’t know, man,” the pilot answers. “I don’t want to. I was kind of hoping that was going to be it, you know.”

During the conversation, the man said he had put fuel in the plane “to go check out the Olympics” (the Olympic Mountains about 160km away). But he later worried he was running low, saying the fuel had burned “quite a bit faster than I expected”.

The control tower then urged him to land at a nearby military base. “I wouldn’t want to do that. They probably have anti-aircraft,” he responds. “This is probably jail time for life, huh?” he later says, according to a recording published by The Seattle Times.

AFP

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