Plane hijacker flies in loops and upside-down before crashing

Richard Russell, 29, has been identified as the ‘suicidal’ airport worker who hijacked a plane at Seattle-Tacoma Airport on Friday night taking it for a joyride and joking with air traffic control before crashing it on Ketron Island in a fiery explosion. Russell worked at the airport as a ground service agent for Horizon Air and was not allowed to fly planes. The FBI and other agencies are investigating to determine how Russell gained access to the empty 76-seater Horizon Air turboprop Q400 and where the plane was headed before it crashed. Witnesses on the ground said they saw the aircraft performing barrels and loop-the-loops in the air as two F-15 fighters jets chased after it. Audio also revealed that Russell joked with air traffic control as they desperately tried to get him to land the plane. At one point during the disturbing call, Russell tells the traffic controller he wants him to ‘whisper sweet nothings’ in his ear. At another point, Russell seems to panic after realizing his fuel is low. Despite several pleas from traffic control, Russell refused to land the aircraft telling them: ‘Yeah, not quite ready to bring it down just yet’. An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board said in a press conference ‘we were very lucky’ the plane did not crash in a more highly-populated area. Russell has been working with Horizon Air for nearly four years. In a blog post, he wrote that he started the job after moving to Seattle in 2015 with his wife of seven years, Hannah Russell. Investigators are still trying to determine a motive for why Russell hijacked the aircraft, but early reports indicate he was ‘suicidal’.

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