Plane stolen by ‘suicidal’ airline worker crashed as fighter jets pursued it outside Seattle

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Soldato
Joined
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Not much to say really, sadly shouldn't have happened and listening to the guy speaking to ATC and a pilot on the ground he clearly was having a bad day and life finally got to him. Happy to see he did the right thing in the end and didn't hurt innocent people on the ground. If you can call it the right thing really, more like the best outcome if he was wanting to commit suicide.

Watch both videos as you will hear different parts of the conversation that was had.

Stolen plane closes Seattle-Tacoma airport before crashing

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45153535


Plane stolen by ‘suicidal’ airline worker crashed as fighter jets pursued it outside Seattle

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...rsuit-outside-seattle/?utm_term=.95f48ece8ba7
 
robfosters said:
How did he get on it and take off? It’s not like a car, you don’t just switch on, stick it in first and put your foot down.
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Aside from his maintenance work there are a fair few videos on YouTube of cold starts through to readying planes for take off and then he obviously played some video games some of which give a basic exposure to the controls (not taking into account actual flight sims) - taking off actually isn't "that hard" - can practically do it to a checklist with the plane handling a lot of stuff these days - though manoeuvrers like rolls and landing are another matter.
 
robfosters said:
How did he get on it and take off? It’s not like a car, you don’t just switch on, stick it in first and put your foot down.
Click to expand...

The airlines mechanic. Guessing upset at his company (the airline the plane was taken from) or could be just something else in his life. Just shocking these events are even allowed to happen these days, especially after 9/11.
 
Eyewitness John Waldron told CNN he watched the plane do "a complete loop", before it went "pretty much straight up. And kind of at an angle. And almost stalled the aircraft".

"Somehow he got it levelled back off," he told the broadcaster. "And then made his way down toward the island."

At one point, he estimated, the plane was no more than 100ft (30.5m) above the water.
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From that I would assume he had some previous flight training.
 
Rroff said:
There are better videos (some actually go step by step explaining it all) but first hit I could find for this plane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRMrGeF8SgQ
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Yeah, it is possible. I mean, I use FSX and the PMDG 737. I’ve learnt the cold start, so I reckon I could do it on a real 737, and probably fly it. So I’m actually contradicting myself lol.
 
That video wasn't as good as some for other aircraft - search "bombadier q400 cold start" gives a few - the 747 ones, etc. tend to be much more detailed and explained step by step.
 
From listening to the audio he says he learned a bit how to fly from video games.

But also he said he couldn't figure out how to pressurised the plane.


And finished with "i wouldnt know how to land it...well I wasn't really planning on landing it anyway"


At least he didn't take anyone with him.
 
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