A Horizon Airlines ground worker commandeered a regional airliner Friday evening at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and later fatally crashed the aircraft following more than an hour of maneuvers over Puget Sound.
Coworkers identified the man as Richard "Beebo" Russell, 29, who had worked as a ramp agent for the airline since February 2015. He gained access to the 76-passenger Bombardier Q400 turboprop twin, registered as N449QX, from a maintenance facility at the northeast corner of the airport and departed from nearby Runway 16C at 7:32 p.m. PDT as ground controllers called to the wayward aircraft.
A controller at Seattle Tracon soon established contact with Russell and maintained communications with him throughout the approximately 75-minute flight, frequently imploring him to either attempt to land at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma or ditch the aircraft in the water. Two Oregon National Guard F-15C fighters trailed the flight.
"Think I'm gonna try to do a barrel roll, and if that goes good I'll go nose down and call it a night," Russell told ATC before performing a modified split-S maneuver, with videos posted online showing the aircraft recovering at less than 100 feet over Puget Sound. "I was kinda hoping that was gonna be it, you know?" he said after the maneuver.
The aircraft crashed into a remote forested area on Ketron Island, 25 miles south of SEA, at approximately 8:47 p.m. PDT. Authorities believe Russell was the only person onboard, and that he was killed in the crash that also sparked a brief fire.
On Saturday, National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) president Paul Rinaldi commended the controller and others in their handling of the situation, saying the ordeal demonstrated a "shared commitment to ensuring the safety of all other aircraft in the vicinity."
SeaTac operations director Mike Ehl said the airport implemented a full ground stop shortly after Russell took off, with limited arrivals continuing to clear the busy airspace. The incident delayed approximately 75 departures from SEA, with nine arrivals diverted to other airports and five flights canceled before normal operations resumed before 9 p.m.
Russell had completed a work shift before the incident, said Brad Tilden, president of Alaska Air Group, parent company of Alaska Airlines and its Horizon regional subsidiary. Crews had ferried the aircraft back from Victoria International Airport (YYJ) earlier that day due to an unspecified maintenance issue.
Officials with the FBI and NTSB) are reviewing data from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder recovered from the wreckage of a stolen Horizon Airlines Q400 regional turboprop airliner that crashed August 10 near Steilacoom, Washington.
Horizon ramp worker Richard “Beebo” Russell, 29, gained access to the 76-passenger twin-engine turboprop (N449QX) parked at the Cargo 1 ramp at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and took the airplane on a 75-minute flight over Puget Sound. Officials stated Russell used a ground tug to move the aircraft from its parking space at Horizon's maintenance facility before starting the aircraft's engines.
Archived ATC communications indicate Russell then taxied a short distance to Runway 16C via taxiway Delta, with the pilot of a nearby Alaska Airlines flight stating the aircraft’s main gear tires were "smoking left and right." The Q400 took off at 7:32 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.
A Seattle Tracon controller established contact with Russell shortly after the unauthorized takeoff and maintained communications with him throughout the flight. Pilots on frequency also provided guidance about aircraft systems, including cabin pressurization controls after Russell complained of lightheadedness. The controller repeatedly implored Russell to land the aircraft at Joint Base Lewis–McChord near Tacoma or ditch in the water, as two Oregon Air National Guard F-15C fighters dispatched from Portland flew in trail behind the Q400.
"Think I'm gonna try to do a barrel roll, and if that goes good I'll go nose down and call it a night," he stated. Russell later performed an aerobatic maneuver, with videos posted online showing the aircraft recovering at less than 100 feet above Puget Sound. "I was kinda hoping that was gonna be it, you know?" he said immediately afterward.
ATC lost contact with Russell approximately 10 minutes later, at 8:47 p.m. PDT. Witnesses stated the aircraft pitched down sharply before impacting a remote forested area on Ketron Island, 25 miles southwest of SEA. Authorities later recovered human remains from the scene and confirmed Russell was the only person onboard the Q400.
Industry Responds To Security Inquiries
The apparent ease by which Russell gain access to the Q400 quickly raised security concerns on Capitol Hill, with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), the ranking Democrat on the Senate aviation subcommittee, asking for a hearing on the incident that "exposed an issue with our nation’s airport security protocols.
"The fact that this incident occurred at Sea-Tac, which is one of the few large airports in the country to require full screening for all employees who work in the sterile area, shows that we need to continually adapt security measures to meet new threats," she continued.
Various aviation groups and other industry stakeholders also told AIN of receiving inquiries about security in the aftermath of the incident, with the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) responding by distributinga fact sheet detailing repair station security procedures.
"For the aviation maintenance industry, good security is good business," ARSA stated, pointing to a variety of measures that repair stations undertake including alarm systems, video surveillance, employee badging and security training, perimeter locks, and working with local law enforcement.
On August 11, National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) president Paul Rinaldi commended ATC, military officials, and others for their handling of the situation, saying the ordeal demonstrated a "shared commitment to ensuring the safety of all other aircraft in the vicinity" of SEA.
Methods, Motivations Remain Unknown
Brad Tilden—president of Alaska Air Group, parent company of Alaska Airlines and its Horizon regional subsidiary—told reporters Russell had worked as a ramp agent since February 2015, after moving to the Seattle area to be closer to his wife's family.
Job duties for a Horizon ramp agent include baggage loading, deicing and repositioning parked aircraft, Tilden added. How Russell gained the knowledge to start up and operate the aircraft remains unclear, although he implied to the Tracon controller he'd learned some of the systems by playing "video games."
"I don't know how he achieved the experience that he did," stated Horizon Airlines president and CEO Gary Beck. (Two Horizon Q400 pilots contacted by AIN declined to comment, with one citing a gag order from the company during the investigation.)
Equally uncertain are Russell's motivations for the incident. His statements to ATC throughout the flight ranged from weather conditions to apparent concern about how quickly the aircraft was burning fuel. Russell also commented about his hourly wage, sarcastically adding, "Maybe [his flight] will grease some gears with the higher ups."
In a video he posted online last year, Russell noted with humor his job mostly entailed working with "so many bags...but it allows me to do some pretty cool things, too," including traveling to Alaska and Europe.