San Francisco, August 11: A “suicidal” mechanic stole an empty passenger plane from the Seattle-Tacoma airport, took it for a brief flight that included an aerial loop, then crashed it in an incident officials said was unrelated to terrorism.
Two military F-15s were scrambled to chase the stolen plane, but “were not involved in the crash,” local officials said.
Video taken by a bystander late Friday showed the passenger airplane making an unlikely upside-down loop, then flying low over Puget Sound before crashing into the sparsely populated Ketron Island in the northwestern US state of Washington. The crash sparked a fire in the dense forest. Flames lit up the night as they spread from the burning wreckage to nearby trees. Officials said there were no victims on the ground.
The stolen plane was a twin engine turboprop Q400 airplane belonging to its sister carrier Horizon Air, Alaska Airlines said on Twitter. It normally carries 76 passengers. “This is not a terrorist incident,” Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff’s office wrote on Twitter.
The plane thief “is confirmed a suicidal male,” Troyer wrote. “We know who he is.” The suspect was identified as a 29-year-old airline mechanic and local resident who “acted alone,” Troyer added, confirming that there were “no passengers on the plane” when it crashed.
The sheriff’s office also said that the F-15s arrived minutes after the plane was stolen and kept the aircraft “out of harm’s way and people on ground safe.” Horizon Air chief operating officer Constance von Muehlen issued a video statement describing the incident.
“We believe it (the plane) was taken by a single Horizon Air employee and no other passengers or crew were on board,” she said. “Our hearts are with the family of the individual aboard as well as all of our Alaska Air and Horizon Air employees.” The plane was stolen at around 8 pm (0300 GMT Saturday) and crashed 90 minutes later, officials said.
John Waldron, who took dramatic video of the stolen plane flying in a loop, said that he was out for an evening stroll when he saw the two fighter jets following the turboprop airplane. His first thought was that they were practicing for an air show. “So, I started to capture video, just because I thought it was kind of bizarre,” he said.
Waldron said it seemed that the jets were chasing down the airplane. “I thought this is really odd. Kept the video rolling.” Then the passenger plane pilot “did a complete loop … I couldn’t believe he recovered.” He estimated that the plane at its lowest point was no more than 100 feet (30.5 meters) above the water.