
U.S. airline worker steals plane, takes it for flight before crashing it - everdev
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-seattle-airplane/u-s-airline-worker-steals-plane-takes-it-for-flight-before-crashing-it-idUSKBN1KW03O
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prolikewh0a
In the ATC recordings he blames it on Alaska Airlines minimum wage, saying he
hopes it will "grease the gears of the higher ups".

He continuously said over ATC that his intent was to not hurt anyone, except
himself. He ended up not physically hurting anyone except himself.

[https://youtu.be/-GzroZxwhJg](https://youtu.be/-GzroZxwhJg)

~~~
13of40
He did crash into a populated island when there was a lot of water to choose
from. Hard to tell if that was intentional or lack of skill though.

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furgooswft13
> lack of skill though

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeYVtVg6aGs&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeYVtVg6aGs&feature=youtu.be)

You see that barrel roll and subsequent dive and last second pull out? He's
"played some video games" indeed. Dunno if that was skill, luck, or a beast
plane, but...that was damn impressive if nothing else.

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fjsolwmv
Getting it right once isn't so hard. Getting it right consistently to boot
kill yourself young is hard

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everdev
It's incredible that someone with no flight training can learn those maneuvers
from video games.

I'd guess the percentage of people that could do it right their first time is
in the low single digits.

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captain_perl
The Q400 is actually a 76-person airliner.

Most airliners don't have keys, thus rely on perimeter fences for security.

This single confused airline worker is going to cause massive inconvenience
for other airline employees and increased cost to US airports and operators,
similar to the suicidal Germanwings co-pilot who deliberately crashed into a
mountain in 2015.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanwings_Flight_9525)

Also, the impotence of F-15 chase planes was demonstrated.

They can follow an airliner over a populated area like Seattle, but then what?
If the thief is confused and doesn't issue threats, then what?

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chriselles
I don’t know about impotence, but I do think this will lead to further
discussion around ROEs(Rules of Engagement) for shooting down recreational and
commercial aircraft used as weapons.

During 9/11 the ready birds that launched were unarmed(peace dividend reduced
threat posture).

I’m sure ready birds are all armed now.

I’m not sure what level of authority is required to shoot down threat
aircraft, but I think it’s safe to assume that the limited time/space requires
latitude be given to flight leader.

One flight pair that launched unarmed on 9/11(including one female fighter
pilot) were prepared to ram the hijcked airliner if they made it in time.

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hamburglar
I was on a restaurant patio at the time and a plane that looked like this
caught my eye and seemed out of place for some reason. It was heading more or
less due south over north seattle. I've been looking for some reference to the
flight path to see if it's possible I saw this plane.

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obrienmd
I was out on the North Shore of Hood Canal (on the peninsula West of Seattle)
- the turboprop went over at about 300 - 500m, just across the water (I think
about 1000m) from us. Thought this was odd as we never see commercial traffic
out here. Then the F15s went by, one low and trailing the plane, and one much
higher... Whole thing had a super weird feeling.

