A clip has surfaced showing the moment an airport worker hijacked a plane before plunging the aircraft through the air and crash landing on a remote island in an apparent suicide. CCTV footage from Seattle Airport shows baggage handler Richard Russell, 29, moving through the transit hub wearing a a T-shirt with “The Sky’s No Limit” emblazoned across the back.
The clip, recorded in August 2018, then shows Russell heading towards the airport’s cargo area around five hours after clearing security. With colleagues walking nearby, he’s seen pushing an Alaska Airlines propeller aircraft on to the runway.
Air traffic agents tried to make contact with the plane but received no response, according to Mirror Online. He then opens the cabin door, jumps in the cockpit and takes off in the Q400 Turboprop - which is designed for short to medium haul journeys.
He tells air traffic control: “Seattle ground Horizon guy. About to take off. It’s gonna be crazy. Hey, I found myself in a predicament. I’m in the air right now. And just gonna soar around.”
As he soars above Washington state as air traffic controllers beg him to make a safe landing. However, Russell won’t be swayed and continues to make disturbing jokes with the men in the tower trying to find somewhere he can set the plane down.
He says: “Hey do you think if I land this successfully Alaska will give me a job as a pilot?” After asking if he could see a suitable runway, he replies: “Oh those guys will try to rough me up if I try land there… I think I might mess something up there too. I wouldn’t want to do that. Oh they probably have got anti-aircraft.”
The traffic controller responds: “They don’t have any of that stuff, we are just trying to find you a place to land safely.” At one point, he says he’s “just a broken guy” and that he is preparing for “jail time for life”.
According to the Seattle Times, he said he feared disappointing “people that care about me” by hijacking the aircraft. He added: “I would like to apologise to each and every one of them. Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess. Never really knew it, until now.”
Moments after the plane took off, two US F-15 fighter jets headed to his position but couldn’t intercept him before his tragic descent. Russell crashed on a remote island 30 miles away from Seattle.
He died around 90 minutes after taking off. People on the ground reported seeing him performing aerial acrobatics, including barrel rolls and loop-the-loops in the air.
Sheriff Paul Pastor said Russell’s was like “a joyride gone terribly wrong”. An FBI report revealed how Russell said he knew how to fly the aircraft solo because he’d played video games in the past.
The report said there was no “clear motivation” for his bizarre actions after investigators probed his “background, possible stressors and personal life”.
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