And I was wondering why there were no planes flying above our house tonight.
I listened to a 25 minute audio clip form air traffic control that someone posted on FlyerTalk. That was some weird stuff! I think it was pretty clear the guy was crazy and suicidal, at one point after he did his “loopty loop” he said something to the extent of he had thought that would bring the plane down, he had no interest in landing the plane I just hope he didn’t hurt anyone on that island where it crashed.
I hope the crash was in an unpopulated area. There is some speculation about the F15s taking him down as a lot of smoke was seen by eyewitnesses. What a sad situation.
I posted it on another thread, but my D2’s flight landed at SeaTac a few minutes after 8 tonight. They were held on the tarmac, told “no gate”. Right —no gate because all flights were held! He could have caused an accident with another plane, since he clearly didn’t have air traffic approval to taxi or take off. 
I just saw this on the news this morning. What a mess for all the people traveling.
It’s frightening that it was apparently so easy for someone to not only get into a plane but to take off!
@showmom858 The airport shutdown seemed to only be for about 25 minutes. The official arrival time at the gate for D’s flight was 8:26, and I think they landed a few minutes after 8. So disruption wasn’t too bad. But what if he’d hit another plane while taxiing or taking off? Or killed people on the ground when he crashed.
What a sad situation. The FBI is now investigating how someone could take an empty plane for a joyride at a major international airport.
Get ready for new regulations that will make everyone’s air travel even more painful.
This is like a New England tale of a guy who walkd into the emergency bay at a hospital and took off in an ambulance. Then they wanted to regulate that ambulances have to shut off their engines/power, when they still need to operate equipment (or have it powered up.) Sometimes, the simpler solutions do work. Lock the freaking doors, have extra keys on you. Or a code.
We were eating dinner late and my daughter said…wow are the blue angels still here? I thought Seafair was over?..nope just a plane theft and jet escort.
The engineer in me read this headline with a totally different take. In the mid 80’s a DC-3 was filled with jet fuel rather than avgas. The pilot aborted takeoff twice and crashed on his third attempt.
He flew a passenger plane upside down! Those were some impressive moves.
Mr. B says the kid must have been inspired by the Seafair.
CNN played more of the conversation he had with air traffic control. Given what his intentions were I was surprised at how calm and casual he was in the dialogue. From the conversation one would never know this man was distressed. His demeanor was affable and he seemed to be a likeable person. Shame someone didn’t get to him to convince him of that before he took off in that plane.
The kid could have made a great pilot… The air traffic controller… I have to say these people have the nerves of steel.
The suspect was an airline worker. Many airline workers have much more access to aircraft than passengers or the general public due to such access being needed for their jobs.
Yes, he was an employee of Horizon. However, it takes more than just access to the aircraft to actually take it for a ride in the sky. Somehow, he needed to start the engines, taxi off to the runway, and get up in the sky.
I read somewhere that there’s no ignition key in a plane. He could just start the engine. How did nobody notice taxing off is a mystery to me. According to NYT, he did some fancy manuvers including at least one upside down.
If any new regulations come from this, they probably won’t impact passengers much, but will impact anyone working at the airport. This young man appears to have been suicidal - possibly manic, which unfortunately most people don’t recognize. Had he been depressed, people would be more likely to notice (though not necessarily likely to do anything to help). Mania is often more dangerous than depression, because of the impulsive reckless behavior that goes along with it - and because it feels good, unlike depression, the person is less likely to notice, or to want to do anything about it until it’s too late.
Oh, they was noticed. The Air Force scrambled a couple of F-15’s and was following him.