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Newly released CCTV footage captures the harrowing moment a Washington state airport employee stole an Alaska Airlines plane and took it for a joyride — before fatally crashing it.
Richard Russell, a ground control agent, died after he stole the plane at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in August 2018 and drove it into the ground of a remote island in the Puget Sound, authorities said at the time.
His death was ruled a suicide.
Now, in new footage of the moments before he took off, the 29-year-old can be seen walking through airport security with a “The Sky’s No Limit” T-shirt.
Russell is then seen walking into a restricted area meant for baggage handlers, getting onto a tarmac tow vehicle, and dragging the plane he was set to steal onto the runway.
The chilling footage of his final moments next shows Russell jumping onto the plane and presumably getting into the cockpit.
“Seattle ground Horizon guy. About to take off. It’s gonna be crazy,” he tells traffic control, according to the video provided to local Seattle news outlet KOIN.
Although he didn’t have a pilot’s license, Russell knew how to work the plane from his experience as an airport employee, the FBI previously said.
Before he took off, several people at the airport questioned what was going on.
“Who is the aircraft on Runway 1-6 center?” an air traffic controller can be heard saying.
“Tower, you need to call and scramble now,” one pilot warned, according to the video.
After taking off, an air traffic controller said, “He needs some help controlling his aircraft.” Russell responded: “Nah, I mean, I don’t need that much help. I’ve played some video games before.”
Russell, who worked for Horizon Air, a regional subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, flew the plane for 73 minutes before crashing it into remote Ketron Island, which has fewer than 20 residents.
“I got a lot of people that care about me. It’s going to disappoint them to hear I did this,” he hauntingly said before his death.
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