Passenger airliner hijacked out of Sea-Tac.

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Originally Posted By: turtlevette
I can't believe they wouldn't clear the channel so they could at least talk to the guy.





The ATC did a pretty good job considering the circumstances. Most of the aviation websites have the sound clips available. There is a fine line in trying to talk to someone who is busy flying an airplane, especially over a populated metro like Sea-Tac.
 
Originally Posted By: FowVay
I think this guy knew precisely what he was doing. He went out and took a look around, did his barrel rolls and then nose dived into a secluded area where nobody else would be harmed. He stated all through his conversation that he didn't want to harm anyone else.


Apparently, he never flew a real airplane before ... only simulated flying games on a computer. I'm surprised he didn't crash much sooner after seeing some of the stunts he was doing. There were all kinds of videos being turned in by various people recording him flying around.
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Probably on some sort of drugs and/or alcohol. I'm sure they'll do an autopsy and figure that out. This could have been much worse is the positive part.


The guy had a known history of mental problems and being suicidal in the past. Yet he had a job as a mechanic at the airport and had free access to airplanes. Guess there might be some need for more background checks on people with access like this to planes that can just be hopped into and fired up and flown.
 
Originally Posted By: Blaze
... with two F-16 near him watching.


I heard it was two F-15s scrambled out of Portland, and they hit full afterburners and headed to Seattle going supersonic.
 
It looks like he got a few nice aileron rolls and a split s out of it before he augured in. Not that it would have changed the outcome, but he's lucky he didn't tear the wings off it like this guy did.
 
All these stupid news stations are calling this indecent a "Highjacking". He didn't force the takeover of the plane from someone else ... he stole it (not authorized to use it) from his place of work.
 
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Probably on some sort of drugs and/or alcohol. I'm sure they'll do an autopsy and figure that out. This could have been much worse is the positive part.


The guy had a known history of mental problems and being suicidal in the past. Yet he had a job as a mechanic at the airport and had free access to airplanes. Guess there might be some need for more background checks on people with access like this to planes that can just be hopped into and fired up and flown.


Probably a member of a Union so he could work there because he was protected but crazy.
 
Originally Posted By: MolaKule
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Probably on some sort of drugs and/or alcohol. I'm sure they'll do an autopsy and figure that out. This could have been much worse is the positive part.


The guy had a known history of mental problems and being suicidal in the past. Yet he had a job as a mechanic at the airport and had free access to airplanes. Guess there might be some need for more background checks on people with access like this to planes that can just be hopped into and fired up and flown.


Probably a member of a Union so he could work there because he was protected but crazy.


Seriously? Union representation has virtually zero to do with this event.

Sam
 
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At 1900 Saturday evening, the family of Richard "Beebo" Russell released a statement to the local media. Over the past few years I have been critical of the only major Seattle daily, The Seattle Times, for their reduced/non-existent and/or slanted coverage, but for this story they have done an excellent job. Many angles to cover, and they are trying to do a thorough job, imho.
https://www.seattletimes.com

Tyler Rogoway at The War Zone has done a great job on his blog updating many facets of the incident, primarily the military/ATC aspects. One of the last updates Tyler did today showed a YT video Richard had made for a class project last year. He comes across as a normal person to me, and may have done so right up until yesterday. Probably more so than Germanwings First Officer Andreas Lubitz.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone
 
Has anyone heard how this guy learned to fly? Its hard to believe he could pull that off working on the ground and playing video games. Can't be that easy.
 
Originally Posted By: spasm3
How was a baggage handler able to perform the startup sequence on a twin engine turbo prop plane?


Youtube.
 
Originally Posted By: Blaze
Has anyone heard how this guy learned to fly? Its hard to believe he could pull that off working on the ground and playing video games. Can't be that easy.


I'm wondering about this myself.
How could a guy with zero experience waltz into the cockpit of a complex high performance turboprop airliner, start both up (this would have been the east part, since I'd bet that there are a couple of buttons labeled "start"), taxi out and then successfully take off, climb and then level out, much less fly some pretty wild aerobatics and then bring the flight to a conclusion at the place of his choice?
There has to be more to this story than what we've been told thus far.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
How could a guy with zero experience waltz into the cockpit of a complex high performance turboprop airliner, start both up (this would have been the east part, since I'd bet that there are a couple of buttons labeled "start"), taxi out and then successfully take off, climb and then level out, much less fly some pretty wild aerobatics and then bring the flight to a conclusion at the place of his choice?

The same way you get to Carnegie Hall: Practice, practice, practice.
https://www.justflight.com/product/dash-8-q400-pilot-edition-fsx-download
Quote:
There has to be more to this story than what we've been told thus far.

You bet.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Originally Posted By: Blaze
Has anyone heard how this guy learned to fly? Its hard to believe he could pull that off working on the ground and playing video games. Can't be that easy.


I'm wondering about this myself.
How could a guy with zero experience waltz into the cockpit of a complex high performance turboprop airliner, start both up (this would have been the east part, since I'd bet that there are a couple of buttons labeled "start"), taxi out and then successfully take off, climb and then level out, much less fly some pretty wild aerobatics and then bring the flight to a conclusion at the place of his choice?
There has to be more to this story than what we've been told thus far.
The island where he crashed.....
 
Originally Posted By: Hounds
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
How could a guy with zero experience waltz into the cockpit of a complex high performance turboprop airliner, start both up (this would have been the east part, since I'd bet that there are a couple of buttons labeled "start"), taxi out and then successfully take off, climb and then level out, much less fly some pretty wild aerobatics and then bring the flight to a conclusion at the place of his choice?

The same way you get to Carnegie Hall: Practice, practice, practice.
https://www.justflight.com/product/dash-8-q400-pilot-edition-fsx-download


I bet the FBI will be looking at his computer to see if this software (or similar) is on there. I'm betting this is how he knew enough to fly the plane. The other part of the puzzle was him being able to move the plane out of the hanger and turn it 180 on the tarmac, but that was part of his job at the airport already.
 
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