A Horizon Air Q400 plane, flown without Seattle Airport traffic controller authorization, reportedly performed several aerobatic tricks and crashed after at least one F-15 jet was sent to intercept it, officials confirmed.
A mechanic “from unknown airlines” stole the aircraft at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday night, the Pierce County sheriff said in a statement. “[The man was] doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills caused crash” on Ketron Island.
The plane was chased by two F-15 fighter jets that were scrambled by North American Aerospace Defense Command to deal with the incident. While the jets were in pursuit of the small plane, air traffic control helped the rogue plane stay clear of the Seattle cosmopolitan area. “Told F 15s made it within a few minutes of theft of plane. Pilots kept plane out of harms way and people on ground safe [sic],” the sheriff tweeted.
𝟑:𝟒𝟎 𝐀𝐌 𝐄𝐃𝐓 | 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐚/𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐢𝐫 𝐐𝟒𝟎𝟎
𝐏𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐓 𝐀𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐎 𝐌𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐄𝐀-𝐓𝐀𝐂 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐚 𝐀𝐢𝐫 / 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐢𝐫 𝐐𝟒𝟎𝟎
@𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐓𝐚𝐜𝐀𝐢𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 @𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐀𝐢𝐫 #𝐒𝐄𝐀#𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐓𝐚𝐜pic.twitter.com/IejDfWjVwk— Kyle Andrew Brown (@kylemillennial) August 11, 2018
The sheriff said that the 29-year-old perpetrator acted alone and “was confirmed a suicidal male.” He stressed that it wasn’t a terrorism-related incident.
“It was unfathomable, it was something out of a movie,” a witness told the Seattle Times. “The smoke lingered. You could still hear the F-15s, which were flying low.”
Okay this insane. A pilot on the plane in front of us just went rogue and took off on an empty plane bypassing orders from the tower. The tower ordered a full stop and they’re trying to communicate with that pilot. Whaaaaaat!
— Ben Schaechter (@Bensign) August 11, 2018
Alaska Airlines confirmed the incident on Twitter, saying that the plane operated by its subsidiary Horizon Air had an “unauthorized take-off” without passengers.
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