The man who hijacked an Alaska Airlines plane in Seattle on Friday night taking it for a joyride before crashing on an island in a ball of flames has been identified as Richard Russell, a married 29-year-old Horizon Air employee.
Russell has worked for Horizon Air at Seattle-Tacoma Airport for nearly four years, according to his LinkedIn account, as a ground service agent and an operations agent.
Authorities have yet to confirm the hijacker’s identity, although Russell’s Facebook friends and a former co-worker announced the news early Saturday morning.
Russell, who authorities called ‘suicidal’, hijacked an empty 76-seat Horizon Air turboprop Q400 around 8pm on Friday after taking the aircraft from the maintenance area.
Richard Russell, 29, has been identified as the man who hijacked an Alaska Airlines plane at a Seattle airport on Friday night
These images show the hijacked Horizon Air Q400 which took off from Seattle-Tacoma Airport on Friday before crashing 25 miles away in south Puget Sound (left, in the air; right, after the crash)
It remains unclear how he was able to gain access to the aircraft and fly it out of the airport undetected. Officials said during a press conference on Saturday that Russell used a push back tractor to rotate the plane 180 degrees before take off.
Horizon Air CEO Gary Beck told reporters that he does not believe Russell had a pilot license.
‘We don’t know how he learned to do that,’ Beck said when asked how Russell was able to perform loop-the-loops and barrels while flying the aircraft.
‘Commercial aircraft are complex machines. No idea how he achieved that experience.’
Horizon Air COO Constance von Muehlen said in a video statement that ‘our hearts are with the family of the individual on board as well as all our Alaska Air and Horizon Air employees’.
Russell was born in Key West, Florida and moved to Alaska when he was seven years old, according to a 2017 blog post. He met his wife, Hannah, in 2010 while they were both in school and married one year later. It doesn’t appear that they had any children.
Russell has worked for Horizon Air at Seattle-Tacoma Airport for nearly four years, according to his LinkedIn account, as a ground service agent and an operations agent
Russell, 29, married his wife Hannah in 2011 after meeting in school the year before
Russell posted several videos on his blog showing him and his wife (pictured) traveling around the globe
According to Russell’s blog, he and Hannah opened a bakery called Hannah Marie’s Bakery in North Bend, Oregon and ran it for three years.
In 2015, the couple relocated to Seattle ‘because we were both so far removed from our families’, Russell wrote.
‘Failing to convince Hannah of Alaska’s greatness, we settled on Sumner because of its close proximity to her family,’ he posted.
While living in Seattle, Russell started working for Horizon Air writing that he enjoyed being able to travel to Alaska in his spare time. Russell, who was pursuing his bachelor’s degree for social sciences from Washington State University, said he wanted to move up in his company to one day work in a management position.
The Horizon Air worker, however, also had other dreams, writing on his blog that he was considering becoming a military officer.
Russell’s blog is filled with pictures of him and his wife traveling across the globe. The 29-year-old also shared pictures from his wedding day and several videos showcasing what he does at work.
In one video, apparently for a class project, Russell introduces himself as ‘Beebo Russell’ and says he ‘lifts a lot of bags’ at his job.
‘Like a lot of bags,’ he says. ‘So many bags.’
He went on to say that because of his job he’s been able to visit places like France, Idaho, Mexico, Ireland and Alaska. Russell ended the nearly two-minute long video by sharing photos of his family members, none of which have publicly commented on the incident.
Rick Christenson, a retired operational supervisor for Horizon Air, told the DailyMail.com that Russell was ‘quiet’ and ‘a nice kid’.
Russell said in a blog post that he and his wife met in Oregon and moved to Seattle in 2015
It does not appear that Russell and his wife had children. The couple are pictured together in a Facebook photo
Pictured above is Russell at what appears to be at a wedding. He posted the photo at the end of one of his YouTube videos
Christenson didn’t supervise Russell’s team, but said he saw the 29-year-old in passing while at work.
‘He always had a nice smile,’ he said. ‘He seemed quiet, and he always had a smile. The people that knew him said he was a nice guy.’
Christenson said he was sitting on his deck Friday night at his Tacoma home with his wife, his cousin and his cousin’s wife when he saw the Horizon Q400 fly over his house.
‘All of a sudden one of the Horizon Q400s came over the house at 500 feet, followed by two F-15s; one was high, one was low,’ Christenson said, adding that he knew something was wrong because the plane was flying way too low.
The former supervisor said he grabbed a pair of binoculars to watch the aircraft, admitting that he was ‘scared’ and ‘concerned’ because he didn’t know what was going on.
‘He was doing a lot of weird flying, weird turns,’ he said, ‘but he was coming back towards us, towards our way.’
Christenson said while the plane was over the water it did a 360 degree roll ‘and went into a steep dive’.
‘He brought the one wing up and the whole airplane rolled and as it rolled it went into a dive. It looked control,’ he said, adding that the plane pulled up with less than 50 feet between the nose of the aircraft and the water.
Christenson said two minutes later there was ‘big plume of black smoke’, indicating the plane had crashed.
During a press conference on Saturday, officials said they did not believe Russell had a pilot license. Christenson said because of the complicated rolls and dives he was doing, Russell may have had some type of experience.
Two F-15 fighter jets scrambled from Portland ‘minutes later’ to intercept it, according to Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. Pictured is the hijacked plane, top, and one of the F-15s beneath it
Smoke and an orange glow are seen on Ketron Island in Washington state, where the plane eventually crash landed
‘I can tell you what, the maneuver he did, that’s not an aerobatic airplane. It’s made to fly people from point a to point b and not do aerobatics. He did some aerobatics in the airplane that I was shocked to see,’ Christenson said, ‘and for him to do that I would think that he either played in a simulator or what. It looked pretty amazing to me. Maybe it was luck, I don’t know.’
The retired Horizon Air worker also said he doesn’t understand how Russell was able to back the aircraft onto the taxiway by himself, although he said it is possible.
‘It’s not the procedure,’ he said, explaining that usually a two-person crew moves aircraft.
Christenson said under normal circumstances one worker is in the cockpit communicating with with the tower, and a second person is on the tractor used to push the plane.
Authorities have said that Russell was in the aircraft alone, but don’t know how he moved the plane and took off undetected.
Russell’s main role as a ground service agent was to load and unload bags, direct aircraft for takeoff, and de-ice planes in the winter.
According to a job posting, ground service agents are paid roughly $13.75 an hour and as a full-time employee they receive benefits, travel privileges for themselves and family members and are eligible for a bonus program.
Nowhere in the job description does it mention that ground service agents are permitted to fly planes.
Police officers standing at a staging ground at the ferry terminal in Steilacoom. Questions will now be asked about security at the airport and how an unqualified worker was given access to the plane
Emergency services vehicles at the ferry terminal in Steilacoom, Washington, on Friday evening, near by the suspected crash site
During a press conference on Saturday morning NTSB investigator Debra Eckrote said they are trying to determine ‘what his process was and where the aircraft was going’.
‘He’s ground support so, you know, they have access to aircraft,’ she said, adding that that we’re ‘very lucky’ the plane went down on a ‘very underpopulated island’.
She said the plane came to rest in a thick underbrush on Ketron Island, and first responders had to ‘blaze a trail’ to get to the wreckage.
Eckrote said the plane is ‘highly fragmented’ and the wings were torn off in the crash. She said responders could not identify a lot Friday night because there was a fire, but they were taking Saturday to ‘focus on the areas that we’re looking for’.
Eckrote called the incident ‘very usual’ and said the FBI were doing a background check on Russell to determine a motive.
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Saturday morning that president Trump was briefed on the incident and was monitoring the situation. She also praised the response effort for its ‘swift action’ and ensuring public safety.
Two F-15 fighter jets scrambled from Portland ‘minutes’ after the plane took off to intercept it, according to Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
Witnesses described seeing the aircraft performing barrel rolls and loop-the-loops as the military planes directed it away from highly-populated areas and towards Ketron Island, where it crashed into a ball of flame.
Police blamed ‘doing stunts in the air and a lack of flying skills’ for the crash.
Sheriff Paul Pastor confirmed the incident was ‘not terrorist related’ and described it as ‘a joyride gone terribly wrong’. He said the man ‘did something foolish and may well have paid with his life’.
During the hijacking, Russell joked with air traffic controllers for more than 20 minutes before crashing the plane into an island 25 miles away.
Ferry workers stand by as fire trucks are driven onto a ferry boat headed to Ketron Island, Friday, Aug. 10
Alaska Airlines, which owns Horizon Air, confirmed that the plane had taken off without permission and later crashed on Ketron Island
Police said the pilot was a 29-year-old employee from Pierce County, Washington. They said he was acting alone and was ‘suicidal’. His name has not yet been released
The FBI released a statement just before midnight in Seattle that they did not anticipate any further details tonight
A map showing Ketron Island, a heavily wooded area inhabited by 24 people, according to the 2000 census
At one point, Russell asked air traffic controllers: ‘Hey do you think if I land this successfully Alaska will give me a job as a pilot?’
The air traffic controller, trying to keep him on side, replied ‘you know, I think they would give you a job doing anything if you could pull this off’, to which Rich replied: ‘Yeah right! Nah, I’m a white guy.’
He was also heard telling traffic controllers he was ‘just a broken guy’ before telling them he was preparing to go jail.
‘This is probably jail time for life, huh? I would hope it is for a guy like me,’ he said.
Once again, traffic control tried to get Russell to land.
‘There is the runway just off your right side in about a mile, do you see that?’ the traffic controller said.
‘Oh those guys will try to rough me up if I try land there…,’ Russell replied. ‘I think I might mess something up there too. I wouldn’t want to do that. Oh they probably have got anti-aircraft.’
‘They don’t have any of that stuff, we are just trying to find you a place to land safely,’ the traffic controller responded.
Russell told the air traffic controller he wasn’t ‘quite ready’ to bring the plane down.
‘But holy smokes I need to stop looking at the fuel ‘cos it’s going down quick,’ he added.
‘OK, Rich, if you could, could you start a left-hand turn and we’ll take you down to the south-east,’ the traffic controller said.
Ketron Island, where the plane went down, is a densely wooded area home to 24 people, according to the 2000 census. None of the island’s residents were thought to have been harmed.
Royal King told The Seattle Times he was photographing a wedding when he saw the low-flying turboprop being chased by to F-15s. He said he didn’t see the crash but saw smoke.
‘It was unfathomable, it was something out of a movie,’ he told the newspaper. ‘The smoke lingered. You could still hear the F-15s, which were flying low.’
Air Alaska passengers wait in the terminal following the hijacking incident, which grounded planes and led to several flights being delayed
A large Alaska Air aircraft maintenance building is viewed on takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in this undated file photo
The airport was shut down for about an hour and a half and flights were suspended as officials dealt with the hijacked plane. Planes already on the runway were ordered to stay put.
Seattle-Tacoma (Sea-Tac) airport said in a statement: ‘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.’
Alaska Airlines said: ‘We are aware of an incident involving an unauthorized take-off of a Horizon Air Q400. We believe there are no passengers on board. More information as we learn more.’
‘This is not a terrorist incident. Confirmed info… this is a single suicide male. We know who he is. No others involved,’ the Pierce County Sheriff said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said: ‘We can’t confirm anything at this time. We’re trying to get accurate information about what is actually going on. Without confirming anything, a stolen aircraft would be a security issue.
‘The FAA is not a security agency, although we work closely with other government agencies on security issues.’
The incident is now being investigated by the FBI and military. It is thought to be the first fatal incident in the US involving a commercial airliner since 9/11.
Horizon Air is part of Alaska Air Group and flies shorter routes throughout the U.S. West.
Sea-Tac is the ninth busiest airport in the US, and flew 46.9 million passengers and more than 425,800 metric tons of air cargo in 2017.
- For confidential support in the US call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255.
- For confidential support in the UK call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details.
- For confidential support in Australia call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14.