[Steven W.]

It didn't sound scripted to me but rather matter-of-fact ... like the guy is a total pro with lots of experience flying and doing all kinds of mission-impossible type ops and even in the height of the moment he's doing "Q" and other kinds of maneuvers, the increasing absurdity that this was something he pulled off from his video game experience ... and the reference to saving people's lives, I think he's a white hat and (certainly) jumped out at last minute ... but all the rest is uncertain.

This is the best graphic I've seen that highlights / separates the Russell route from the others:

[WildHighlander57]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3678584/posts?page=279#279

Xone says he did a cr@ppy barrel roll.

Question to xone and all:

Is it possible for someone to bail out of a commercial plane like that one?

And if not, why would a white hat do a suicide-by-plane?

[EasySt]

After finally seeing the video of the barrel roll...

He didn’t make good (hardly any?) use of his rudder and elevator controls to maintain altitude throughout the manouever. (I’m not the only one that noticed.)

He came quite close to putting it into the water at that point.

You can do it that way, and it’s even easy to practice on a simulator and get a good idea about how much altitude you need to do it that way, in whatever aircraft you choose in the game, but if he wanted to show off flying skill? Even simulator flying skill? Serious room for improvement.

(I’ve flown single engine a little bit. I am NOT an expert, but all my landings have been smooth. (Thank you Lord!))

Simulators are fun. Much safer than flying. Anyone remember the old Chuck Yeager’s Flight Simulator? One of the first things I ever posted on the “net” was me flying an SR-71 through a hanger, upside down, at mach 2+.

Surviveable only in a simulator.

[Freemeorkillme]

Re: 301 Russell flight path

Here’s a scenario. Imagine the missile launch pad (remember the Indonesia trip) from which a missile had been previously fired needed a pretense to be taken out.

Also, what is comms procedure for a situation like this. They switch immediately to an encrypted channel, right? He certainly didn’t sound suicidal to me.

If that’s right, then it may also be plausible that the comms were pre-recorded.

More for thought. Might the Q400 been remotely piloted?

And, there was a more updated graphic that I saw that has a subtle(depending on you POV) difference. I can’t find it right now, but remember seeing it on spaceshot76’s youtube channel last day or so.