I would like to apologize to each and every one of them.
On August 10, 2018, a Horizon Air Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 was stolen from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (Sea–Tac) in SeaTac, Washington.The perpetrator, 29-year-old Richard Russell, was a Horizon Air ground service agent with no piloting experience. He performed an unauthorized takeoff and two McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle fighters were subsequently scrambled to intercept the aircraft. Outside of a few taps on his … The audio in this article has been edited from the original recording of Richard “Beebo” Russell and Sea-Tac officials during the flight of a stolen … "Multiple times, a controller tried to persuade Russell to land at the Air Force's nearby McChord Field.As a controller tries to relay instructions, Russell wonders about jail time.A controller brings on the radio a pilot who will try to relay instructions.Immediately after that, Russell implies he's feeling lightheaded.About a minute later, in response to an apparently unrecorded question from a controller about autopilot, Russell speaks again.The recording later picks up a snippet in which Russell says he doesn't want to hurt anyone. Never really knew it until now.”Eventually, he becomes fixated on performing a barrel roll in the turboprop airplane.“Hey pilot guy, can this thing do, uh, back flip thing?” he says.“I think I’m going to try to do a barrel roll and if that goes good, I’m just going to go nose down and call it a night,” he later says.“I’m going to do a barrel roll real quick … I feel like I need to be, what do you think, like 5,000 feet at least to pull this barrel roll off.”At one point, Beebo did roll the plane, coming close to the water.“Alright Rich, congratulations, you did that,” the pilot can be heard on the recording. Video Video related to … “Now let’s turn and land that airplane safely and not hurt anybody on the ground”“Alright,” Beebo responds. I don’t know! “And, uh, it’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this.
He does say that flying the plane was “a blast” and that he played video games before, so he had an idea of how to fly it.He talked about a range of things with the control tower, such as how he feels Horizon pays ground service agents a very low wage for their work.
I was hoping that was going to be it, ya know.”LISTEN: Inflight audio from from stolen Horizon airplane Just a broken guy. He also apologized for the trouble he caused and hoped it didn’t ruin the controller’s day.When the air traffic controller or the pilot mention places for him to land, such as McChord Air Force Base, Beebo steers the conversation away. Richard Russell Posted a Video on YouTube About Being a Baggage Handler. Soon after that, Russell apologizes and says he is a "broken guy" with "a few screws loose. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.The Pierce County Sheriff's Department described the man as suicidal but did not elaborate. "Russell says something that isn't heard well on the recording.About six minutes later, a controller asks Russell how much fuel he has left.Eventually, chatter appears to reference a maneuver the stolen plane has just done. As mentioned, controllers brought a pilot into the conversation to help Russell.
In audio recordings posted on Broadcastify, the man can be heard both resisting and seeking help as a controller and others tried to guide the otherwise unoccupied Horizon Air plane to a landing… (Video from a witness on the ground shows the plane at one point doing a loop, putting the aircraft upside-down, then pulling up just feet above a body of water. Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. “Ah damn it, I don’t know, man.
It's unclear if this roll is what the radio chatter is referring to.) Audio recordings from the air traffic control tower at Sea-Tac Airport feature the conversation between the tower and theThe audio of Beebo comes in clips between other communications between the control tower and other airplanes.
To best understand Richard Russell, watch him play “Please Forgive My Heart” in the studio with Bobby Womack.
I don’t want to. But in the handful of clips, adding up to about 11 minutes, the man can be heard indicating that he wanted to do maneuvers, but didn’t focus too much on landing the plane.Beebo was jovial and friendly during much of the discussion, covering how much fuel he had and the sights he was seeing. He asks the pilot on the line how to pressurize the cabin — he was feeling lightheaded and dizzy. The conversations took place before the 76-seat, twin-engine turboprop plane crashed on Ketron Island, about 25 miles southwest of where he took off at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, also known as Sea-Tac:Early in the flight, a controller apparently is giving instructions to Russel while he flies the plane. At times Russell was apologetic, expressed his desire to fly toward the nearby Olympic Mountains, worried about lightheadedness and expressed shock at his fuel level's rapid decrease.Here are portions of Friday evening's recordings in the order they occurred.