worker at SeaTac airport takes a turboprop for a joyride

[skyking]

And it ended badly.
Watching live news now, the guy said he had a screw come loose today, and just took a 32 million dollar Dash 8 Q400 out for a few barrel rolls.
F-15s were scrambled out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and followed him around a while. Eventually he crashed on remote and sparsely populated Ketron Island. It is believed he is the only casualty.

 

[BUTCH1]

Yea, just saw that, these planes seat about 80-90 people, correct?, this would defiantly wreck someone's day if it came down in a heavily populated area..

 

[skyking]

supposedly the F-15 pilots herded this guy around as best they could. It was a lucky break it did not hit a populated area.

 

[BUTCH1]

I guess they will have to lock the planes computers with a code of some sort to stop anyone from flying off with one.

 

[BoomerD]

I was watching that on the news a bit ago. Hopefully he didn't have anyone on-board with him...

I guess they will have to lock the planes computers with a code of some sort to stop anyone from flying off with one.

Apparently the guy was a mechanic with an as yet unidentified airline. it's entirely possible that in such a case, he'd have access to any codes used.

UPDATE:
Horizon Air has confirmed that the guy was a Horizon Air mechanic...apparently with a "few screws loose."

http://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Reports-of-hijacked-plane-in-Washington-490620431.html

 

[Capt Caveman]

Video of the plane flying - Holy Shit! https://www.facebook.com/jon.tornquist/videos/10212530577644892/

 

[BoomerD]

Video of the plane flying - Holy Shit! https://www.facebook.com/jon.tornquist/videos/10212530577644892/

jeezus...that woman was annoying as hell...

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

jeezus...that woman was annoying as hell...

My thought too. Well the pilot flew it like he stole it for sure, at least for a while.

 

[Puffnstuff]

He was a smashing success for sure.

 

[JSt0rm]

lots of audio of the guy talking to air traffic control.

 

[ch33zw1z]

wow, lucky he didn't hurt anyone else

 

[mizzou]

He sounded so nonchalant on his radio transmission... sounded like he felt no pain or worry at all as he already made the decision to go out in a bang.

I would prefer the bang though not cost millions of dollars and endanger lives and property if others.

 

[BUTCH1]

During the audio with the F-15 pilot he said "minimum wage" was one of the reasons for this act. Christ, how can anyone working on a commercial airplane make Burger King money, sad if it's found out to be true. Welcome to our new economy, tons of jobs around, no future to be had except one of poverty and desperation. We'll see as details unfold if he was an actual mechanic or just cleaned the planes.

 

[K1052]

During the audio with the F-15 pilot he said "minimum wage" was one of the reasons for this act. Christ, how can anyone working on a commercial airplane make Burger King money, sad if it's found out to be true. Welcome to our new economy, tons of jobs around, no future to be had except one of poverty and desperation. We'll see as details unfold if he was an actual mechanic or just cleaned the planes.

From what I've read he didn't sound too stable. Doubt a trained mechanic would be pulling min wage.

 

[K1052]

He sounded so nonchalant on his radio transmission... sounded like he felt no pain or worry at all as he already made the decision to go out in a bang.

I would prefer the bang though not cost millions of dollars and endanger lives and property if others.

Well...better than the Germanwings incident.

 

[Commodus]

Well...better than the Germanwings incident.

That was truly horrific. It's one thing to do this, where the only human casualty is the perpetrator. It's another when someone is so suicidal that they're willing to take dozens of other people with them just to indulge their own feelings. They say suicide is a selfish act, and that was proof of it.

 

[purbeast0]

Wow just watched this video which appears to be a compilation of stuff about this:

The audio is eerily calm for what that dude is doing. He definitely wasn't right.

 

[JSt0rm]

seemed like a cool guy.

 

[UberNeuman]

RIP

 

[skyking]

That was truly horrific. It's one thing to do this, where the only human casualty is the perpetrator. It's another when someone is so suicidal that they're willing to take dozens of other people with them just to indulge their own feelings. They say suicide is a selfish act, and that was proof of it.

that took me back to this 1987 incident.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1771
Just off the guy and yourself, not all those others.

 

[Indus]

Going out with Barrel rolls & Loop the Loops..

I'm curious though did the F15 shoot it down?

 

[hal2kilo]

That's all that was one the local news this morning. Heck I learned about an island in Puget Sound I did not know existed. The guy's obviously dead but nothing official yet.

 

[skyking]

no, he crashed it on his own.

 

[tweaker2]

Killed a lot of flora and fauna via impact/fire. I mourn their loss. As for the pilot, I feel no sympathy for him because what he did was what he wanted to do and now he's gone.

However, I do feel sympathy for his family and friends.

That being said, I'm sure there's folks out there that think that was one hell of a way to check out.

As well, from viewing those vids, it looks as if he flew that aircraft like he knew it well and knew beforehand how to pull some hairy maneuvers in it. Maybe he was trying to over-stress the frame into catastrophic failure and failing that, he went for the big dive.

 

[hal2kilo]

Killed a lot of flora and fauna via impact/fire. I mourn their loss. As for the pilot, I feel no sympathy for him because what he did was what he wanted to do and now he's gone.

However, I do feel sympathy for his family and friends.

That being said, I'm sure there's folks out there that think that was one hell of a way to check out.

As well, from viewing those vids, it looks as if he flew that aircraft like he knew it well and knew beforehand how to pull some hairy maneuvers in it. Maybe he was trying to over-stress the frame into catastrophic failure and failing that, he went for the big dive.

I was thinking that when he pulled that barrel roll he might be trying to over stress the airframe or not come out of the loop by hitting the water.