DC: An airline employee reportedly stole a Horizon Air plane from Sea-Tac International Airport in Washington state Friday night before crashing it in the Puget Sound.
The suspect, identified as a 29-year-old ground service agent, stole the 76-seat, turboprop aircraft around 8:00 p.m., according to The Associated Press.
Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed just south of Seattle on Ketron Island in the Puget Sound. The suspect told air traffic controllers en route that he did not want to disappoint the people who care for him, but that he was just learning that he was “a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess.”
Officials urged the suspect to land the plane at a nearby military base, however, he refused saying “Those guys will rough me up if I try and land there.” He also joked with air traffic control, asking if they would hire him as a pilot if he landed the aircraft safely. more
I gotta admit. It’s refreshing to read for a change that the plane wasn’t hijacked by some muslim named Mohammed but by a regular American with a death wish and a killer sense of humor.
That’s a pretty sophisticated plane for a “ground crewman” to take off and fly, even if he was an experienced private pilot. Glad no innocents were killed., but Seattlei-ites will have a shit hemmirage over the water pollution!
Pancaking is more common than you would think in aviation. Consider some doctor on his 3rd crazy wife, in debt up to his ears and an investigation into whether he prescribed too many pain killers.
You likely won’t hear much about it unless you’re into the darker side of aviation accidents. It started with me wanting to know more about how accidents occur. As a student pilot, I wanted to know about the sequence of events that led to disaster, so that I wouldn’t suffer the same fate. There’s thousands of case studies, the FAA and NTSB publish the smallest detail once fully investigated.
For example, a couple years ago I was in my garage when a storm cell whipped up quickly. I heard a strange sound, like strap on a semitrailer, it was as if something was fluttering. A few minutes later, the rain stopped so I went about my errand. I turned out of my subdivision and immediately noticed white pieces on the road and sidewalk. As I got closer, I knew exactly what I was seeing. They were sections of fuselage, wing or cowling that were shredded, I could tell by the remaining rivets and general shape. A cop showed up and I helped point out additional pieces, he said a plane crashed about 1/2 mile away.
I wanted to go gawk, but I stayed home. Later I saw the tail number on a picture about the crash. It took some time, but they finally released a report about the incident. If you would like to see how thorough these investigations are, check out the link. Unfortunately there was a site Katheryns Report that organized the findings and even had pictures, I was even on it recently, but now they’re requesting a sign on. Here’s the NTSB version.
https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20160721X74604&ntsbno=CEN16FA276&akey=1
Tony R, After a few hours flying flight simulators like X-Plane. Just about anyone with the gumption to do so will easily get almost any airplane airborne.
The skill comes in actually navigating, monitoring performance and systems, then actually landing it in one piece.
The first time I soloed, just as I rotated. I thought to myself, this is it, do or die, it was too easy to get it off the ground.
Probably a liberal suffering TDS 😁
Old Oaks: Still, big difference between simulator and the real thing. Also, big difference between a Cessna 172 and a Boeing 767. And, you need a ground crewman in a tug to back the plane away from the terminal. Sea-Tac is a BUSY airport, with lots of ground traffic on the taxiwqy; so he waited in line with the other planes for his turn to take off? LOTS of unanswered questions; would love to read the TSB report on this one.
Went right over my head. I live here. It was loud and low and enough to cause a second or two of panic but then it moved on. I had no idea what was really happening.
From a video I saw it looked like he successfully completed a barrel roll. How would you like to be a passenger on a plane and have the pilot try that?
Bob Hoover doffs his hat to you, sir.
R.I.P.
Hey, what happened to the later post of this incident?
Rent or steal because you don’t want to do this to the aircraft you’re partnered in…
Admit it guys, how many times have you heard private pilots suggest that this is the way to go, especially if they’re pulling your ticket.
Tony R, Airplanes want to fly, so it’s not difficult to get them to do so. Yes, there are some quirks, but not difficult to learn in short order.
The media did a splendid job at making flying a phenomenon post 9/11.
I doubt this flight was coordinated in any way. Dude was on a mission and he hurt only himself.
I dont support it, but may he RIP.