Man steals Horizon Dash 8-Q400 in Seattle

[jonsey737]

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...t-has-crashed/

A 29-year-old mechanic took off in a Horizon Air Q400 turboprop at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday night and crashed the plane in the south Puget Sound while being trailed by two fighter jets, officials said.

The plane was piloted by a Pierce County man and crashed on Ketron Island, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said. There appear to have been no passengers on the 76-seat plane.

The sheriff’s office said that “this is not a terrorist incident” and that the pilot was a mechanic from an unknown airline. He crashed from either doing stunts or because of a lack of flying skills.

[revelations]

Surprised no mention by other pilots here; a suicidal gate agent for Alaska stole a Q400 from the ramp at seatac and went on a joy ride, and ended up buying the farm as he had planned - they did stunts until the Q hit the ground.

https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/...seattle-4.html


Back in my day turning wrenches at AC (post 9/11), I could have easily taken any of the aircanada AC sitting around the hangar ramp. No locks of any kind and I could have called for 200,000 pounds of gas to be put on the account and flown off for a short while.

[Maxx Mazda]

I just operated out of Seattle yesterday too! I’ve had to single-pilot the Q in the sim before, it’s a lot of work. He obviously had some sort of background knowledge and knew what he was doing to a degree. Probably used a realistic home flight simulator or something. I think there’s a really good Q400 for FSX.

Done a barrel roll in the sim too, it’s fun! Haha

[Sentry]

Well if ya scrolled down a little

https://forums.beyond.ca/threads/408...400-in-Seattle

[revelations]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Well if ya scrolled down a little

https://forums.beyond.ca/threads/408...400-in-Seattle

I did not see that in the new posts ..... sorry , mods delete

[Maxx Mazda]

This thread now has more posts than that one lol

[revelations]

If that dude happened to want to take out the space needle - there is little anyone could have done. The ANG jets probably would not have reached him in time.

[Gman.45]

I just operated out of Seattle yesterday too! I’ve had to single-pilot the Q in the sim before, it’s a lot of work. He obviously had some sort of background knowledge and knew what he was doing to a degree. Probably used a realistic home flight simulator or something. I think there’s a really good Q400 for FSX.

Done a barrel roll in the sim too, it’s fun! Haha

Agreed. Sims these days can be pretty detailed, plus due to the nature of his job, he easily could have picked up enough info on how to get that plane airborne and fly about reasonably well. I've worked in the flight sim business as one of my hobbies since the early 90s. These days, the manuals available on even modern fighter aircraft coupled with the complexity of some of the simulators out there...it's not unreasonable for a non rated person to get even a modern fighter up flying, IF they have access to it and without any security around to stop them. I realize it sounds a bit nuts, but the NATOPS manual for an F18 fighter is available online, and with enough sim time on something like DCS's new Hornet sim, a good "sim" pilot could probably have a coin flip chance on getting even that fighter airborne. I don't base that on my opinion, but on the many current and former Hornet pilots that post on Eagle Dynamics website regarding the accuracy of both the documentation/manuals and the sims themselves, who've said as much. Heh, it may even be easier for a non rated person to fly a fighter than that Dash 8 (again, minus the obvious security on a military base compared to an airport) due to the nature of it being a single pilot aircraft, as Mazda alluded to the amount of work it'd be for a single pilot compared to having a warm body in the right seat.

I agree regarding the response times for the F15Cs - had this guy had intentions to harm others or even target landmarks, stopping him would have been pretty much impossible had he acted immediately once he got airborne on that. Some good articles about this specifically, as well as security at airports in general-

https://theaviationist.com/2018/08/1...-before-crash/

https://theaviationist.com/2018/08/1...olen-aircraft/

Story about an enlisted Marine aircraft mechanic (ie not an officer or pilot) who stole an A4 Skyhawk and successfully flew it around. He had simulator time, and that was it - he survived as well.

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/th...awk-1745015819


NATOPS F18 A/B/C/E/F models manuals if anyone cares to peruse them, the DCS manuals can be found on Eagle Dynamics website as well, just to give context on how much information is out there and available to Joe public regarding operating even high tech fighter aircraft.

https://publicintelligence.net/u-s-n...light-manuals/

[kenny]

I was listening to the ATC feed yesterday, guy definitely had his exit planned.

http://garchives1.broadcastify.com/1...0200-15227.mp3

[95EagleAWD]

Yeah the sims are crazy accurate now. I’ve never been in a Q400 cockpit, but I’m 100% confident I could start it and fly it.

[01RedDX]

.

[J-hop]

Amazing how calm and with it he sounds going into it. Dark thing to say but it sounds like an extremely troubled person that finally found peace.

[Gman.45]

J-Hop, I thought the same thing, he was eerily calm and collected, seemed completely unfazed about the whole affair. Having had a direct family member commit suicide last year, I wonder about this frequently, and what happens to the mind and spirit to cause such a thing, etc. I feel badly for his family, having to hear his completely sane sounding voice apologizing for what he was doing. Maybe he did find peace in his final act. OTOH, perhaps it was an unfortunate waste, he could have become a pilot if that's what made him happy, I have a friend that plowed runways at YYC and got his commercial helo/flingwing license in his late 30s and is now making decent $ and has the lifestyle he's always wanted flying helicopters.

Some more interesting info coming about on the aviation side of the incident, the new KC-46 tankers that the USAF is buying but aren't operational yet, there were 2 out on a test flight and offered to tank the F15Cs as they burned a ton of fuel doing a supersonic dash to the area from where the 142nd is based, as their tanker hadn't even gotten airborne yet. Some excellent links in this article regarding the 142nd defense of the West coast and how they operate as well.

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone...-q400-incident

Radio recordings of the KC46/F15Cs during the incident - https://soundcloud.com/user-22342331...-11-2018-0300z

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone...eadiness-drill

The War Zone/The Drive website can be strange with links, hit refresh if the articles don't come up initially.

[95EagleAWD]

The War Zone is a great daily read.

[Gman.45]

Yep, been following Rogoway since before he had his Foxtrot Alpha site and was just running a piddly little photographer site, he does good work IMO, although he can be abrasive to some, I've always liked him. I'm friends with the owner of The Aviationist, used to edit his English for his early articles as he's Italian and ESL, he does well enough now that he doesn't need editing/translating (as much). I check/read 3 dozen defense/aviation sites daily, there are a number of excellent ones out there. Many of them have varying takes and info on this incident as it pertains to security/intercepts especially.

One of the better recent ones I've found is the following - https://theaviationgeekclub.com/

Also, by far the best aviation/military channel on Youtube I've found this year is this one, such great interviews/info, you being a pilot 95EagleAWD will really like it, as will any pilot or person interested in military aviation - https://www.youtube.com/user/Aircrewinterview

Mike "Dozer" Shower's interviews on his time as an F15C and F22 pilot are relevant to the F15C story here, and are very interesting, especially his discussions about how the F22 slaughters everything in 4 ships v 20+ Red air in exercises during Red Flag/etc.

[revelations]

Looks like a copy cat incident just happened. This time a small business jet was crashed (intentionally) into the pilots house. Only pilot killed.

https://www.avgeekery.com/breaking-u...njet-one-dead/

[Sentry]

I wonder if he "landed" it into the house or if he went in with the throttles forward. Can't imagine it'd be easy to hit a particular single house in a suburban neighborhood in a jet.

[01RedDX]

.

[revelations]

suicide by plane - copycat

[01RedDX]

.