Some 29-year old airport baggage handler at Alaska just stole a Q400 from Sea-Tac and took it on an insane and dangerous joyride, flying at high speeds at low altitudes and doing freaking loops in it. F-15's were scrambled, intercepted it, and then the Q400 crashed. Some are speculating the F-15's shot it down, but it's unconfirmed. The Q400 crashed on rural Ketron Island, luckily no one on the ground was killed.
KOMO News Coverage
Dj's Aviation Coverage
ATC Audio Snip-Its
You can't make this crap up. HOW did this dude steal a regional turboprop from a busy as heck airport like Sea-Tac!!!???
UPDATE: He's not a mechanic, he was a baggage handler, so that's probably how he had such easy access to a Q400. Also, the Q400 took off with very little fuel, so the pilot didn't have much flight time and most likely crashed due to fuel starvation.
Fly High, Sky King...
@BACconcordepilot educational hahahaha i would have an A- from sp
cool
I agree.
@Tacocat16
Well there was an explosion on impact, but the fire wasn't that big, indicating very little fuel.
the airplane probably wasnt locked, plus there is no keys on them Q400s,and he took off between two other airplanes andi heard that he was protesting. in a way. but i dont think he wanted to go to a populated area. Also, i dont think the airplane ran out of fuel, because there was an explosion when it crashed, or maybe the fuel pickup couldnt get any fuel.
@Fjorge They don’t know his intentions. What if he crashed the aircraft into a populated area?
Why would they send F-15s? seems a little excessive.
@BACconcordepilot
I'm guessing he ran out of fuel.
Some were speculating the F-15's shot it down because many heard a loud booms/bangs, but that could have been from the Q400 impacting the island.
Same @JohnnyBoythePilot
@BACconcordepilot
Yea it is pretty sad, but he didn't want to land. ATC tried to convince him, but not only did he not want to land cause he'd go to jail for quite some time, but he probably didn't know how to land the Q400 either. From what I heard, the Q400 is quite notorious for being difficult to land. But it actually sounds like he crashed due to fuel starvation, not by deliberately crashing. He mentions one of his engines cutting out.
@BACconcordepilot
Take it from me, about 60% of what I know in aviation came from my experience in FSX.
UPDATE: He's not a mechanic, he was an airport maintenance personal, so that's probably how he had such easy access to a Q400. Also, the Q400 took off with very little fuel, so the pilot didn't have much flight time and most likely crashed due to fuel starvation.
It’s actually kind of a sad story, after joking around with ATC and performing some aerobatics he said,
“I’ve got a lot of people who care about me. It’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this. 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.”
Then he crashed.
LOOPS IN A FREAKING DASH-8
fsx in a nutshell @merasmusthewizard
grand theft planeLmao I saw this in the news right before I flew on a Q-400
one of my friends on vacation was in the airport when that started
I saw this on the news honestly quite shocking, also when the plane crashed the authority’s didn’t check to see if the Pilot (if you can call him that) was still alive (the crash would probably of killed him)
And this is why there is a fine line between simple planes and real life
Apparently the plane was down for ‘maintenance’ and he was a suicidal ground crew for horizon, did an unauthorized takeoff, and kamikazed into the beach
@CruzerBlade
@jamesPLANESii
That's or FSX or GTA
lol
I wonder how did he trick the ATC to get takeoff permission