Man steals Horizon Dash 8-Q400 in Seattle

[Gman.45]

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This guy was going for a murder-suicide. The other guy was specifically trying to avoid hurting anyone.

Agreed, mostly. While the intentions and results weren't a copycat situation per se, plus the guy was an actual pilot unlike the Dash8 guy, he still did steal a plane he was uncleared to take, so it's still in a column of "plane theft", albeit with some major differences.

I wonder what other security writ large changes could (or will be by politicians/etc) put in place to try and prevent this. IMO there isn't much that can be done, if someone snaps or is desperate, short of having armed guards placed every place there are aircraft, it's going to be hard to stop this sort of behavior. Reminds of of school shootings, not a real lot of great options that'll make a massive change in security or safety overall.

Back in the summer of 1985, by pop took me and a friend to a Detroit Tigers game. We sat in left field during batting practice, I got a few balls and got Sparky Anderson (coach at that time), who was along the left field wall doing some stuff with players, to sign one even. That game, some moron in a biz jet buzzed the stadium - he flew right through the lights on both sides, i can still remember seeing his head in the cockpit. The pitcher dropped the ball, and had to be pulled from the game, it cracked him up so badly. Quite a weapon such a thing could be, back then due to crime in Detroit they would lock you into the game with these huge linked fences and checkpoints - getting out in an emergency would have been a disaster for the side of the arena where the plane could have it, thousands would have been burned up even after the initial damage from the potential crash. Point is that it isn't a minor issue, even with the defenses in place to try and prevent another 9/11, it's obvious from these 2 incidents that trying to get intel to prevent them from happening in the first place is the only real defense, and that's a pretty thin one IMO, as again, if some tard decides to do it, he pretty much can with even a tiny bit of skill and knowledge.

edit - anyone else see the pics from this incident? That is one tough house, it looks like a car hit it, sort of like Rage2's recent incident (sorry, can't resist) with some more fire. I expected to see a crater in the ground, but I think the house will be repairable. Surprised.

[Sentry]

I did see the pics, that's why I posted this hoping someone would chime in

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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.

Cause it looks like he just plopped it down flat in the driveway instead of cruise missiled into it.

[Gman.45]

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I did see the pics, that's why I posted this hoping someone would chime in


Cause it looks like he just plopped it down flat in the driveway instead of cruise missiled into it.

I wish there were more pics which would show that, I think the same, but without seeing if there are obstructions or houses across the street along what looks to be the flight path before impact, it's hard to tell. Either way, still surprised at the minimal damage - even without a nose down attitude at impact, a completely level hit at even stall speed in a plane that heavy with fuel on board, I'd have expected a lot more carnage, even if he put most of the energy into the pavement like you said, which I agree with too. I remember when a Marine Hornet plunked down into a bunch of houses a while back, it was 1/2 a block of destruction.

[Tik-Tok]

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I wish there were more pics which would show that, I think the same, but without seeing if there are obstructions or houses across the street along what looks to be the flight path before impact, it's hard to tell. Either way, still surprised at the minimal damage - even without a nose down attitude at impact, a completely level hit at even stall speed in a plane that heavy with fuel on board, I'd have expected a lot more carnage, even if he put most of the energy into the pavement like you said, which I agree with too. I remember when a Marine Hornet plunked down into a bunch of houses a while back, it was 1/2 a block of destruction.

A Citation weighs literally 1/10 of a Hornet. 6500 lbs empty weight vs 66,000 lbs. Significantly less forces, and the Hornet wasn't trying to aim at the ground, so probably had more horizontal speed.