Nutter steals passenger plane in Seattle.

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DQuaN

DQuaN

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Luckily it was empty. Apparently a worker at the airport, not a pilot. Made some very strange communications with the tower discussing:

■ The co-ordinates for the orca carrying her dead calf on her back
■ Looking at the view and possibly going to look at the Olympic Mountains, in Washington State
■ If he can do a barrel roll before landing and "calling it a day"
■ Whether or not Alaska Airlines would give him a job after a successful landing.

Stolen plane closes Seattle-Tacoma airport before crashing http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45153535
 
Thankfully no one else was injured during this incident, but from the ATC recordings, it sounds like he was suffering from some mental illness. There are still many questions that have yet to be answered, but I sympathize with the man’s family and friends. I hope the ATC employee(s) that was in contact with him won’t be traumatized from this event either.
 
Do you really think it is possible to learn how to fly an airplane with computer games? I mean, properly fly a certain plane, taking off, landing is correctly on a runway etc ... .


I don't think he was planning on killing himself. But he knew he was going to jail - according to the conversations he had with traffic control - and probably didn't want to. Plus, didn't he also said that he didn't know how the land the plane safely? He also mentioned that he had a screw loose and this hijack attempt proved it.


Here he is, Richard Russell (29).

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Eunos_Cosmo
It's very sad, yet...idk there is something glorious about it.
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No, not really. He trashed something very expensive whilst killing himself.

kikie
Do you really think it is possible to learn how to fly an airplane with computer games? I mean, properly fly a certain plane, taking off, landing is correctly on a runway etc ... .
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Everything except landing would be pretty easy. Flying isn't really that hard, flying under constant control within ATC and safety boundaries is far more difficult but that wasn't really his intention.

kikie
I don't think he was planning on killing himself.
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From the things he said it seems he was planning on killing himself (or was sure that the act would kill him, a subtle difference). The discussion about going to jail was in response to talk about successfully landing the plane somewhere.
 
kikie
Do you really think it is possible to learn how to fly an airplane with computer games? I mean, properly fly a certain plane, taking off, landing is correctly on a runway etc ... .
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Like @TenEightyOne said, it's easier than many people may think to control a plane. Even the landing in calm weather can be pretty simple if you understand the concept of Angle of Attack, which I myself learned from flight sims around age 10.

Planes are also getting easier to fly as time goes on while flight simulators become more and more accurate.

X-Plane 11 has a demo that gives you 15 minutes of flight. The demo is totally free. The physics are good and it has basic ATC interactions. The full game also has airports across the entire world and can be used to practice real life flights, even if they're across oceans.

DCS has what I think are even better physics and no time limit on its free aircraft (Su-25T and TF-51 D). The manuals for the aircraft also detail how to start them up based on declassified information, navigation, communication, and procedures for takeoff and landing.
 
I'm just wondering why the title calls him a "nutter"? He was a disgruntled employee who decided to kill himself after a joy ride. He didn't hurt anyone.
 
kikie
Here he is, Richard Russell (29).
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I've read somewhere that there are studies about people who take a lot of selfies, they say those people run a high risk of being mentally....unstable. So far I can only confirm it.

Also, the only plane worth stealing is a Warthog with a loaded and readied 30mm machine cannon on it, anything lesser is not worth dying for. Who needs to land this thing if you can press the red button of awesomeness on the stick making 4200 fireworks per minute come out of your airplane? :P

I mean a Dash-8??
 
Michael88
Also, the only plane worth stealing is a Warthog with a loaded and readied 30mm machine cannon on it, anything lesser is not worth dying for. Who needs to land this thing if you can press the red button of awesomeness on the stick making 4200 fireworks per minute come out of your airplane? :P

I mean a Dash-8??
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Why not go for F35B utilizing STOVL with B61 thermonuclear payload and some AMRAAM and JAGM, pick a target. No need to worry about landing, it can do it vertically and it has great stealth capabilities, no one will see you raining death from above or change history. Okay, I'm talking crazy now :lol:
 
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Robin
Labelling him a "nutter" is a bit far when we don't yet know the motive.
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Indeed. I wasn't aware he was disgruntled--he certainly didn't sound like it in released audio.
 
Robin
Labelling him a "nutter" is a bit far when we don't yet know the motive.
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Indeed. A sympathetic, systematic examination of his personal problems and mental health issues would yield a far more appropriate response, I'm sure.

But be honest... if someone told you somebody stole a plane, barrel-rolled it and crashed then wouldn't you be at least slightly tempted to think "nutter"? Of course we should consider all the personal, human aspects of such sad cases but if we only ever did that then we wouldn't all be able to enjoy the Darwin Awards so much, right?
 
In the very best British sense of the word, the bloke was an absolute nutter!

I don't see it as being derogatory in the way it's been used here.
 
If the word is being used in the British off the cuff sense (like Barmy etc) then yes I understand, it's just if it was being used in the literal sense.
 
:dunce:

I read that as "fair" rather than "far". Oops.

:lol:

Still, as is said above, I think it is fair. Even if he truly was disgruntled, the decision to abscond with an aircraft and perform stunts without proper training (even if operating rhe aircraft isn't that difficult) is a little...odd. The radio conversation that took place amidst said stunts only supports that assessment.
 
The press here mostly took the angle that he was not so much disgruntled as potentially suicidal, even going so far as to give the number of the Samaritans after each report about it.

As of yet we still don't have a clear picture, maybe the stunts were something he wanted to do just as a thrill before making his exit, doesn't make it right to take a plane but maybe thats the reasoning.
 
Richard Russell
"I'm not ready to bring it down yet but holy smokes I need to stop looking at the fuel because it's going down quick.

"This is probably jail time for life, huh? I've got a lot of people that care about me.

"It's going to disappoint them to hear that I did this. I would like to apologise to each and every one of them. Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess.

"Never really knew it until now."
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UKMikey
Richard Russell:
"I'm not ready to bring it down yet but holy smokes I need to stop looking at the fuel because it's going down quick.

"This is probably jail time for life, huh? I've got a lot of people that care about me.

"It's going to disappoint them to hear that I did this. I would like to apologise to each and every one of them. Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess.

"Never really knew it until now."
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Somehow this qoute sends chills down my spine and makes it sends chills down my spine.

I really empathise with the guy and wished for him to have landed and not get to severly punished.

Sad things don't always work out for the best.
I hope he found joy in these last moments even if what he did wasn't really ok.
 

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