A 29-year-old "suicidal" airport worker who commandeered an empty plane from Seattle's main airport and took it on an hour-long flight chased by F-15 fighter jets before crashing into a small island did not commit any security violations, officials said.
Horizon Air employee Richard Russell told an air traffic controller he was "just a broken man" minutes before dying late Friday in the Bombardier Q400 twin-engine turboprop plane, appearing to apologize for his actions. Law enforcement officials identified him to US media.
Authorities ruled out any link to terror. But consternation grew over the safety gaps that allowed an airport worker to easily gain access to a commercial airliner and fly it over a major metropolitan area.
"Everybody's stunned... that something like this would happen," said recently retired Horizon operational supervisor Rick Christenson. "How could it? Everybody's been through background checks."
Russell "had access legitimately" to the plane, said Mike Ehl, director of aviation operations at the airport in the northwestern US state of Washington, adding that "no security violations were committed."
"To our knowledge, he didn't have a pilot's license," Gary Beck, CEO of Alaska Airlines affiliate Horizon, told reporters. "Commercial aircraft are complex machines... No idea how he achieved that experience."
Ruling out a terror link, Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor noted that "most terrorists don't do loops over the water... This might have been a joyride gone terribly wrong."
"He was a quiet guy. It seemed like he was well liked by the other workers," Christenson told The Seattle Times. "I feel really bad for Richard and for his family. I hope they can make it through this."
"Let's turn around the air and land it and not hurt anybody on the ground."
"I don't know, man," the pilot answers. "I don't want to. I was kind of hoping that was going to be it, you know."
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