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An Alaska Airlines plane was stolen by a mechanic at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport late Friday night. The mechanic attempted maneuvers during flight, before ultimately crashing and taking his life. There were no passengers on board the plane outside of the man who attempted to fly the aircraft.
“An airline employee conducted an unauthorized takeoff without passengers at Sea-Tac; aircraft has crashed in south Puget Sound. Normal operations at Sea-Tac Airport have resumed,” the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport wrote.
After he stole the plane, the man made contact with AIr Traffic Control, which attempted to talk him into landing the plane.
https://twitter.com/jwsthomson/status/1028139694683373569
The pilot admitted that he was beginning to get light-headed after the cabinet depressurized.
https://twitter.com/jwsthomson/status/1028142238671429633
The man flying the plane made it very clear that he did not want to harm anyone else.
https://twitter.com/jwsthomson/status/1028144573975941122
He then realized how quickly he was burning through fuel.
“I’m down to 2100; I started at like 30-something,” the hijacker identified as Rich, a suicidal 29-year-old male, can be heard saying.
“Rich, you said you had 2100 pounds of fuel left?” the controller responded.
Rich added, “Yeah – I don’t know what the burnage…is like on a takeoff but yeah. It’s burned quite a bit faster than I expected.”
https://twitter.com/jwsthomson/status/1028137142524891136
“I’ve got a lot of people that care about me. I’m going to disappoint them to hear that I did this,” the man can be heard staying. “I would like to apologize to each and every one of them. Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose I guess. Never really knew it, until now.”
https://twitter.com/jwsthomson/status/1028134044502908929
The man admitted to attempting some maneuvers in the air and had plans to land the airplane safely.
https://twitter.com/jwsthomson/status/1028156973471035393
He crashed the plane moments later.
You can listen to full audio from the discussion with the air traffic control dispatchers below.
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