Posted on 08/11/2018 12:57:36 AM PDT by Simon Green
A "suicidal" airline employee stole an empty Horizon Air turboprop plane, took off from Sea-Tac International Airport and was chased by military jets before crashing into a small island in the Puget Sound on Friday night, officials said.
Preliminary information suggests the crash occurred because the 29-year-old man was "doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills," the Pierce County Sheriff's Department said.
Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, said on Twitter the man was suicidal and there was no connection to terrorism.
Video showed the Horizon Air Q400 doing large loops and other dangerous maneuvers as the sun set on the Puget Sound. There were no passengers aboard. Authorities initially said the man was a mechanic but Alaska Airlines later said he was believed to be a ground service agent employed by Horizon. Those employees direct aircraft for takeoff and gate approach and de-ice planes.
Witnesses reported seeing the plane being chased by military aircraft before it crashed on Ketron Island, southwest of Tacoma, Washington. Troyer said F-15 aircraft scrambled out of Portland, Oregon, and were in the air "within a few minutes" and the pilots kept "people on the ground safe."
The sheriff's department said they were working to conduct a background investigation on the Pierce County resident, whose name was not immediately released.
The aircraft was stolen about 8 p.m. Alaska Airlines said it was in a "maintenance position" and not scheduled for a passenger flight. Horizon Air is part of Alaska Air Group and flies shorter routes throughout the U.S. West. The Q400 is a turboprop aircraft with 76 seats.
(Excerpt) Read more at wdtn.com ...
Eeep....this guy’s flight path took him right over my house. Unfortunately, the timing was just after I take out my hearing aids to shower before bedtime. My wife heard it.
Good! This is exactly what ALL media should do....black out the specific individual, and focus on the crime. A lot of these types of incidents are "monkey-see, monkey-do" looking for a nutcase sense of being immortalized.
No I want to find out whether the government story is true.
Another One Bites the Dust. Winning !
Very good version of the Q400 with FSX/P3D simulator. I would imagine that’s how he knew to fly it.
And what "government story" might that be???
Who says anyone would sue his estate? His family will sue the airlines. They put him in this situation, they didn’t prevent the misuse of their airplane. The airlines will turn to their insurance to cover that and the replacement cost of the plane as well. A weak spot right in front of everyone has been outed, that’ll mean changes as well.
Flight simulators mimic pretty much the real thing so it's possible to learn how to get a plane off the ground and maneuver it in the air pretty much on simulators alone which you can run on your own PC. I believe this was how the 9/11 hijackers trained themselves.
Also, there are YouTube videos that show you how to operate just about any type of airplane. I went through a phase where I watched a ton of Cessna 172 videos. I never followed through on taking actual flight lessons but I felt comfortable enough with the basic techniques of flying a Cessna.
Here's a video on how to startup a Q400 turboprop similar to the one we are talking about here. There are countless other videos explaining the general operating of this particular aircraft.
Horizon is not going to liquidate. He could have chosen to land on the water, but I am betting he wanted to land on the ground as he could survive a water landing. Ketron island is not far from me, a few houses but mostly trees. Best place to crash a plane if you are suicidal. The military jets felt like an earthquake which woke me up.
“Do the guys that direct the planes from the ground also know how to fly them?”
At one point the air traffic control guy said something like “Rich, we’re going to have Pilot Tony in here in a few minutes.” I’m assuming that was to help with the flying.
At another point, Rich (the hijacker) says something like “Where’s the pressure control? I’m getting dizzy. I can fly ‘cuz I play video games, but how do I control the pressure?”
He was so low though, I don’t think pressure was an issue. He was probably just feeling out of it and dizzy ‘cuz his brain had finally snapped.
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