Baggage Handler Richard Russell With No Aviation Experience Stole Alaska Airlines Plane From Airport And Took Off In It

Port of Seattle

In 2018, a baggage handler at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington who had no prior aviation experience stole a plane and flew off in it.

Richard Russell, 29, managed to get the plane onto the runway and do pre-flight inspections without being caught. It wasn't until he cut in line for takeoff that anybody believed he was intending to hijack the plane.

Port of Seattle

A pair of F-15 aircraft were dispatched to intercept him as soon as he took off in the Alaska Airlines Bombardier Q400.

On the day Russell stole the jet, footage from the airport showed the baggage handler passing through security at the beginning of the day. About five hours later, cameras observed him leaving for the area of the airport where baggage handlers work.

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He was observed pulling the Alaska Airlines plane into position with the help of a tow vehicle as Air Traffic Control established communication.

Russell was observed entering the cabin while the plane was in motion after rolling forward and opening the cabin door.

He announced that he was "about to take off" and that "it's going to be crazy" once he got inside the aircraft.

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Nobody could stop him from attempting to fly the plane at this point, and he succeeded in getting it into the air.

He later messaged in, saying he was "just gonna soar around" and had "found myself in a predicament."

People attempted to persuade Russell to return to the ground while the airport was closed and he was in the air. 

He answered: "Hey do you think if I land this successfully Alaska will give me a job as a pilot?"

He also mentioned that he had "played some video games before" and inquired about his ability to attempt a backflip while in the air.

Russell was given the option of landing on a variety of runways, but he declined since he "might mess something up there" and "wouldn't want to do that."

The 29-year-old claimed to be "just a broken guy," adding that he "had a few screws loose" but "never really knew it until now."

After leaving the airport, he declared his actions would "disappoint" everyone who knew him, and 73 minutes later, he purposefully crashed the jet into the sparsely populated Ketron Island.

Investigators concluded that if Russell had chosen to, he could have maneuvered the plane out of the drop it ultimately crashed from. Russell did not survive the incident.

He didn't have a pilot's license, but the FBI claims that he had learned how to fly a plane from his work at the airport.