A “suicidal” airline mechanic on Friday night stole an empty Horizon Air turboprop aircraft, took off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and was chased by military jets before crashing into a small island in the Puget Sound, officials said.
Preliminary information suggests the crash occurred because the 29-year-old mechanic was “doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills,” the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said.
Department spokesman Ed Troyer said on Twitter that the man was suicidal and there was no connection to terrorism.
Video showed the Horizon Air Q400 doing large loops and other dangerous maneuvers as the sun set. There were no passengers aboard.
Witnesses reported seeing the airplane being chased by military aircraft before it crashed on Ketron Island, southwest of Tacoma, Washington.
F-15 aircraft scrambled out of Portland, Oregon, and were in the air “within a few minutes” and the pilots kept “people on the ground safe,” Troyer said.
The department said it was working to conduct a background investigation on the Pierce County resident, whose name was not immediately released.
Horizon said the man was an employee of the airline and that the aircraft was stolen at about 8pm.
The man “did something foolish and may well have paid with his life,” Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said.
The man could be heard on audio recordings telling air traffic controllers that he is “just a broken guy.”
An air traffic controller called the man “Rich,” and tried to convince him to land the airplane.
“There is a runway just off to your right side in about a mile,” the controller says in one recording, referring to an airfield at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
“Oh man. Those guys will rough me up if I try and land there,” the man said, later adding that “this is probably jail time for life, huh?”
“I’ve got a lot of people that care about me. It’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this... Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess,” he said later.
Flights out of Sea-Tac, the largest commercial airport in the Pacific Northwest, were temporarily grounded during the drama.
The US Coast Guard sent a vessel to the crash scene after witnesses reported seeing a large plume of smoke in the air, Petty Officer Ali Flockerzi said.
Video showed fiery flames.
Horizon Air is part of Alaska Air Group and flies shorter routes throughout the region.
The Q400 is a turboprop aircraft with 76 seats built by Bombardier.
“Our hearts are with the family of the individual aboard, along with all of our Alaska Air and Horizon Air employees,” Horizon Air CEO Constance von Muehlen said in a video on Twitter.
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