SEATAC, Wash. -- An airline employee stole an empty Horizon Air turboprop plane, took off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and crashed late Friday, officials said. The Pierce County Sheriff's Office said the man was 29 and "suicidal." The man has been identified as Richard Russell.

Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, said on Twitter that preliminary information suggests the crash occurred because the man was "doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills."

There was no connection to terrorism and no others were involved, said Troyer. It was believed the man, whose name was not immediately released, was killed.

Follow this thread for official info. This is not a terrorist incident. Confirmed info .. this is a single suicide male. We know who he is. No others involved. — Pierce Co Sheriff (@PierceSheriff) August 11, 2018

The aircraft was stolen at about 8 p.m. Alaska Airlines said it was in a "maintenance position" and not scheduled for a passenger flight. Horizon Air is part of Alaska Air Group and flies shorter routes throughout the U.S. West.

Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said the man "did something foolish and may well have paid with his life."

Video showed the Horizon Air Q400 doing large loops and other dangerous maneuvers as the sun set on the Puget Sound. The Q400 is a turboprop aircraft with 76 seats. There were no passengers aboard.

The man could be heard on audio recordings telling air traffic controllers that he is "just a broken guy." An air traffic controller called him "Rich," and tried to convince him to land the airplane.

"There is a runway just off to your right side in about a mile," the controller says, reffering to an airfield at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

"Oh man. Those guys will rough me up if I try and land there," the man responded, later adding, "This is probably jail time for life, huh?"

"I've got a lot of people that care about me," the man later said. "It's going to disappoint them to hear that I did this...Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess."

Authorities said the man was a 3.5-year Horizon employee and had clearance to be among aircraft. They also said he didn't have a pilot's license, and that it is unclear how he attained the skills to do loops in the aircraft before crashing about an hour after taking off.

They said he used a machine called a pushback tractor to first maneuver the aircraft so he could board and then take off Friday evening. The man went through various background checks to get clearance to be in the secured area, according to authorities.

The plane crashed on Ketron Island, a small island in the Puget Sound that is home to about two dozen residents.

How was a man able to steal and pilot a plane?

Witnesses reported seeing the plane being chased by military aircraft before it crashed. Troyer said two F-15 military planes scrambled out of Portland, Oregon, and were in the air "within a few minutes" and the pilots kept "people on the ground safe." He said the military planes were not involved in the crash.

Gary Beck, President and CEO of Horizon Air, said in a statement the plane crashed "about an hour" after it left Sea-Tac airport.

The U.S. Coast Guard sent a 45-foot vessel to the crash scene after witnesses reported seeing a large plume of smoke in the air, Petty Officer Ali Flockerzi said. Video showed fiery flames amidst trees on the island, which is sparsely populated and only accessible by ferry.

Alaska Airlines said no structures on the ground were damaged.</s>An airline employee took off in a plane at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday night in an episode that ended with the plane crashing about 30 miles from the airport, the authorities said.

“An airline employee conducted an unauthorized takeoff without passengers at Sea-Tac,” the airport said in a tweet. “Aircraft has crashed in south Puget Sound. Normal operations at Sea-Tac Airport have resumed.”

Alaska Airlines said in a tweet that the takeoff involved a turboprop, a Q400, flying for Horizon Air, a subsidiary. “We believe there are no passengers on board,” it added.

The Pierce Country sheriff’s office said in a tweet that a stolen Horizon airplane had crashed on Ketron Island.</s>A airline mechanic stole an empty Alaska Airlines plane and took off from Sea-Tac International Airport in Washington state before crashing near a small island, officials said.

Preliminary information suggests that the 29-year-old mechanic stole the Horizon Air Q400 and the crash occurred because the person was “doing stunts in the air or (had a) lack of flying skills”, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said.

Witnesses reported seeing the plane being chased by military aircraft before it crashed near Ketron Island, south west of Tacoma, Washington. There were no passengers aboard.</s>Questions still remain about how a Horizon Air employee was able to steal a plane from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.</s>(Reuters) - An airline mechanic stole an airplane at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport on Friday and was chased by two U.S. military jets before crashing on a nearby sparsely populated island, the local sheriff said.

There was no indication that the incident was an act of terror, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter.

No passengers were onboard and normal operations have resumed at the airfield, the airport said on Twitter.

The 29-year-old pilot was suicidal and appeared to have acted alone, the sheriff said, adding he was probably killed in the crash. The pilot’s identity has not been made public.

“Was doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills caused crash into Island,” the sheriff said on Twitter.

Constance von Muehlen, chief operating officer of Horizon Air, a sister carrier of Alaska Airlines, said that at about 8 p.m. an employee of the airline undertook an unauthorized take-off of a Q400 twin-engine turboprop airplane.

It is unclear how the employee was able to taxi the plane on a runway and take off without authorization. An Alaska Air spokesman said he did not have information about how the incident occurred.

Two F-15s fighter jets pursued the plane but were not involved in the crash, local TV station KIRO7 reported.

“Told F-15s made it within a few minutes of theft of plane. Pilots kept plane out of harm’s way and people on ground safe,” the sheriff said on Twitter.

Video footage on social media showed a large plane flying above the Seattle area with an F-15 following it.

“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,” tweeted Ben Schaechter, a passenger on an airplane that was taxiing to take off before the incident.

Fire crews were working on putting out the fire from the crash on Ketron Island in Puget Sound. Ketron Island is a sparsely populated island 25 miles (40 km) southwest of the airport.

The Bombardier Q400 turboprop airplane is designed for shorter-distance flights and can seat 76 passengers, Alaska Air said on its website.</s>A plane crashed Friday evening after a Horizon Air employee conducted an "unauthorized take-off" from Sea-Tac International Airport. The plane was empty besides the 29-year-old man who stole it.

The aircraft crashed on Ketron Island in south Puget Sound shortly after 8:45 p.m. Alaska Airlines said a Horizon Air Q400 was involved in the incident.

The employee has been identified as a 29-year-old Pierce County resident, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. The department believes he acted alone.

Alaska Airlines, the parent company of Horizon, released the following statement late Friday night:

"Alaska Airlines believes a ground service agent employed by Horizon Air was the individual responsible for flying the Horizon Q400 without clearance from Sea-Tac International Airport around 8 p.m. tonight. The plane, which was taken from a maintenance position and was not scheduled for passenger flight, crashed about an hour later in a wooded area on Ketron Island in rural Pierce County. No ground structures were involved at the crash site. Military jets were scrambled from Portland, but it does not appear that these jets were involved in the crash of the Horizon aircraft. This individual who took the aircraft, who has not yet been positively identified until remains are examined, is believed to have been the only person on the plane when the plane was taken from a maintenance position at Sea-Tac. First responders are at the crash site. Appropriate government agencies, including NTSB, FAAand FBI, have been notified."

While the plane was still in the air, two F-15 Air National Guard fighter jets took off from Portland, Oregon. In audio recordings, an air traffic control operator can be heard trying to point the man to the airfield at Joint-Base Lewis McChord.

"We're just trying to find a place for you to land safely," the operator said.

Sea-Tac Airport was put on an immediate ground stop once the plane took off. The airport said operations have since returned to normal.

KING 5 has several crews covering the incident. MORE TO COME.</s>An ground service agent at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is dead after stealing and crashing a commercial airliner on Friday. The 29-year-old man took off in a stolen 76-seat Horizon Air Q-400 turboprop, then flew the plane for about an hour — during which he performed aerobatic stunts and was chased by two U.S. F-15 fighter jets — before crashing on Ketron Island in south Puget Sound some 25 miles from the airport. The still unidentified man, who was a Horizon Air employee, is believed to have been the only person aboard the plane when it crashed.

The unlicensed pilot seemed scattered in a 25 minute recording of his conversation with an air traffic controller. He expressed both remorse for what he was doing and enthusiasm for attempting aerobatics, and at times seemed to imply that he intended to end his own life. At one point he said that he had hoped he could have a “moment of serenity” in the air but that everything moved by too fast. At another point he apologized to everyone who cared about him and described himself as, “just a broken guy, got a few screws loose I guess — never really knew it until now.”

The air traffic controller and a pilot tried to convince the man to attempt to land the plane — and to not attempt the aerobatic maneuvers — but were not successful.

Stunned onlookers shot cell phone video of the turboprop flying low to the ground, then again as it was escorted by the fighter planes, which tried to move the plane away from populated areas out over the sea, but did not fire on the airliner. “The responding fighter pilots flew alongside the aircraft and were ready to do whatever was needed to protect us,” Washington State governor Jay Inslee tweeted on Friday, “but in the end the man flying the stolen plane crashed.”

“The person who stole it was either doing it on a lark, or was suicidal,” Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said on Friday. Terrorism was quickly ruled out as a motive, but the incident still led to a complete shutdown of air traffic in and out of Sea-Tac airport.

On Saturday, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, FBI, and Alaska Airlines — which operates Horizon Air — travelled to the crash site, which is on a sparsely populated wooded island that is only accessible by ferry. An investigation will also seek to determine how a ground service worker was able to access the plane’s cockpit and steal it in the first place.</s>A 29-year-old Horizon employee stole an empty plane from Sea-Tac International Airport around 8 p.m. Friday. No passengers or crew were on board. The Pierce County Sheriff's Office believes the man acted alone and the incident was not related to terrorism.

The aircraft crashed on Ketron Island in south Puget Sound shortly after 8:45 p.m. Alaska Airlines said the plane involved was a Horizon Air Q400.

The employee has been identified as a 29-year-old Pierce County resident. It appears he acted alone, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office.

His motive is not clear, but audio between the cockpit and air traffic control indicates the man was in emotional distress.

LISTEN: Worker who stole empty plane talks with air traffic control before crash

Witness footage shows the plane's erratic flight prior to the crash. John Waldrop shared the following footage from Chambers Bay Golf Course:

Alaska Airlines, the parent company of Horizon, released the following statement late Friday night:

"Alaska Airlines believes a ground service agent employed by Horizon Air was the individual responsible for flying the Horizon Q400 without clearance from Sea-Tac International Airport around 8 p.m. tonight. The plane, which was taken from a maintenance position and was not scheduled for passenger flight, crashed about an hour later in a wooded area on Ketron Island in rural Pierce County. No ground structures were involved at the crash site. Military jets were scrambled from Portland, but it does not appear that these jets were involved in the crash of the Horizon aircraft. This individual who took the aircraft, who has not yet been positively identified until remains are examined, is believed to have been the only person on the plane when the plane was taken from a maintenance position at Sea-Tac. First responders are at the crash site. Appropriate government agencies, including NTSB, FAA and FBI, have been notified."

While the plane was still in the air, two F-15 Air National Guard fighter jets launched from Portland, Oregon.

An air traffic control operator attempted to guide the man to Joint-Base Lewis McChord: "We're just trying to find a place for you to land safely," the operator said.

Sea-Tac Airport was put on an immediate ground stop once the plane took off. The airport said operations have since returned to normal.</s>Richard Russell, a Horizon Air ground crew member, underwent criminal background checks to get hired and was fully credentialed to be in the area where he stole the plane, but his heist raises questions about airport security controls, even as investigators seek to unravel how and why he did it.

He was a 29-year-old grounds crew member, fully credentialed to be inside secure areas and certified to tow aircraft around the tarmac. But federal investigators, Sea-Tac officials and his employer, are scrambling to figure out how Richard Russell managed to steal a 76-passenger Horizon Air turboprop plane, take off from one of the busiest airports in the country and fly it around South Puget Sound before a fiery twilight crash Friday evening.

The answers to these questions could eventually alter security procedures not only at Sea-Tac but other airports around the country.

“Security is something that is taken very very seriously, and this clearly was a serious breach,” said Michael Huerta, who until January of this year served as administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. “It won’t surprise me if steps are taken to change protocol or put additional steps in place … The insider threat is something that is taken seriously.”

[ Live updates: Follow here for the latest » ]

The FBI is leading the investigation into the takeoff and crash, working with the National Transportation Board, the FAA, the airlines, the Port of Seattle, which operates the airport, and state and local authorities. Investigators had not released Russell’s name as of Saturday afternoon, but several sources, including a law enforcement official, identified him to The Seattle Times.

Russell’s 75-minute flight captivated spectators on the ground, lit up social media, and caused F-15s to be scrambled from an air base in Portland as some 75 flights were delayed for up to two hours at Sea-Tac. Law enforcement officials have said they don’t believe terrorism was involved, and nothing from Russell’s dialogue with air traffic control during the flight would suggest otherwise. That dialogue, captured in publicly released audio recordings, also offers little concrete in the way of motive as Russell tells an air traffic controller he just circled Mt. Rainier, calling it “beautiful” and hoped to have enough gas to go the Olympic Mountains.

While the air traffic controller tries to convince him to land at Joint Air Force Base McChord or in the water, Russell talks of wanting to do a barrel roll, “and if that goes good I’ll just go nose down and call it a night.”

Air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft at 8:47 p.m. on Friday and his flight ended on the heavily wooded 230-acre Ketron Island, which has a population of about 20, igniting a forest fire that was still burning acreage on Saturday. No one on the ground was injured.

The insider threat is a difficult one to counter, since many of the protective measures involved using background checks, such as criminal screens conducted on airline ground crews such as baggage handlers and tow operators, to ensure that anyone inside a secure area does not pose a security risk. And though the employee was at the end of his shift — and had no purpose approaching the aircraft — he did have the right to be in the area where he made his heist, according to Brad Tilden, chief executive of Alaska Air Group, the parent company of Horizon.

FAA regulations require pilots to undergo periodic physical examinations that may include questions about their psychological condition. Additionally, if the FAA receives information from another source about a mental health issue, the agency may request a psychological evaluation. But no such evaluations are required for grounds crew members.

One of the big unknowns is how Russell gained enough skills to get the Bombardier Q400 aircraft off the ground and fly it, since he apparently did not have a pilot’s license, according to Alaska Airlines officials.

According to Tilden, the aircraft took off at 7:32 from Sea-Tac, and the pilot flew for more than an hour before air traffic control — communicating through a ground control frequency — lost communications with him. During that time, as he flew south and then edged west over the water as two Portland-based F-15 fighter jets tailed him, he performed some impressive flying feats.

“There were some maneuvers done that were incredible,” said Gary Beck, chief executive officer of Horizon.

It was not immediately known if Russell had ever taken flight lessons. At one point, when an air traffic controller tries to get a pilot to give Russell guidance on how to control the plane, Russell responds: “Nah, I don’t need that much help. I’ve played some video games before.”

It is unclear what he meant by that comment. It could be some sort of action aerial video game, or possibly he was referring to his use of flight simulators, which can be accessed by the general public and give detailed flying information for specific aircraft.

“The bottom line is that people approach it as a video game … It does give a very real feel, and the level of fidelity is really astonishing,” said Jon Ostrower, the Seattle area-based editor of Air Current, an aviation publication.

Ostrower also said that many members of the aviation community freely share their knowledge about how aircraft work, and that could be another way the Horizon employee learned about flying.

The stolen — and now crashed — aircraft was parked for the evening on Friday.

Sea-Tac airlines, including Horizon, have been using parking spots about a half mile from the terminal. Locked down for the night, the plane should have had security tape around the doors so the next crew would know if anyone had entered without authorization.

The employee used a push back tractor to rotate the plane 180-degrees. That put it in position to taxi and make forward progress toward take off, according to Mike Ehl, from the Port of Seattle.

That was one of his jobs with Horizon along with baggage handling and tidying the aircraft.

He would also have had to remove chocks that hold wheels in place and remove parking brakes, according to a Horizon Air pilot who flies Q400s and spoke to The Seattle Times about getting the aircraft off the ground.

But there are no locks on the doors, which helps ensure a quick evacuation in event of emergency.

“You don’t want doors that have the possibility to lock on an aircraft,” said the Horizon Air pilot, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. “That’s a system that if it were to malfunction in an emergency, everybody dies.”

But once entering the cockpit, no keys are required to start the aircraft. Instead, a series of switches and levers must be pulled in a particular sequence to unlock the controls.

“You could go on Microsoft Flight Simulator and pull up the flight deck for any type of aircraft and play with all the switches and buttons,” the Horizon pilot said. “You could figure it out pretty easily if you were motivated.”

While a ramp agent wouldn’t ordinarily know how to do that, it wouldn’t be that hard to figure out, according to the Horizon Air pilot.

Investigators are still trying to piece together what route he traversed during his take off from the congested airport.

Asked how the man got the aircraft from the taxiway to a runway, Beck, of Horizon Air, declined to speculate.

Normal procedures call for a flight crew to request clearance to push back the aircraft, and there would be communications with ground control all the way out to the runway. Then, the crew would be turned over to the to the tower for clearance take off.

This was a much more chaotic process.

Communications recorded from the Sea-Tac tower capture a controller repeatedly demanding identification from a Bombardier turboprop lining up on the runway. The unknown aircraft was on parallel runway 16c, according to Flight Global, website for the trade magazine Flight International. But it is unclear how he accessed the runway, and also how much of it he would have used, since an unloaded Q400 would need only a fraction of the full length to take off.

“Aircraft on [taxiway] Charlie lining up runway 16C, say call sign,” the controller states, according to the transcript reported by Flight Global.

The controller sought to establish communication several more times, then learned from an Alaska Airline flight crew that the Horizon aircraft is taking off, according to Flight Global.

Airplane tracking company Flightaware produced a detailed track of the plane’s flight, including its altitude at each point, which shows that the maximum altitude reached was 8,000 feet.

At one point the Horizon employee flying the plane complained of being light headed, and said he threw up a little. He asked the controller “how to make it pressurized.” But the Horizon pilot said that unless you fly way above 10,000 feet, pressurization isn’t an issue.

“So he wasn’t light-headed because of a thin atmosphere. He was light-headed for other reasons,” the pilot said.

At one point in the flight, video taken by people on the ground showed the plane upside down. Although this was described by others as a “loop-the-loop,” that’s not what happened. The guy flying the plane did a barrel roll, or an aileron roll, which means he flipped it through 360 degrees around the fuselage axis.

The Horizon pilot, who had watched that video, was categorical that it couldn’t have been accidental. You have to move the flight controls in a particular sequence to do a barrel roll.

“That was intentional,” the pilot said. But he said that while the control inputs to make it happen are not difficult, pulling it off safely and well is very difficult.

“A perfectly executed barrel roll requires a lot more skill than most pilots have,” he said, adding that Russell “did not do it well.”

“It looked like someone doing a barrel roll for the first time,” the pilot said

The ramp agent appeared to take some pride, just prior to his death, in his flight skills. But he knew that getting it safely to the ground would be a tough task.

“Hey, you think if I land this successfully, Alaska will give me a job as a pilot,” he said, ine what appeared to be a joke, during radio communications.</s>A Horizon Air employee stole an empty plane from Sea-Tac International Airport on Friday before crashing into a small island in south Puget Sound.

No passengers or crew were onboard. The Pierce County Sheriff's Office believes the man acted alone and the incident was not related to terrorism.

The aircraft crashed on Ketron Island in Pierce County shortly after 8:45 p.m. The man piloting the plane has not been recovered. Alaska Airlines said the aircraft involved was a 76-seat Horizon Air Q400 turboprop plane.

The man was identified as a 29-year-old Pierce County resident. Authorities initially said the man was a mechanic but Alaska Airlines later said he was believed to be a ground service agent employed by Horizon. Those employees direct aircraft for takeoff and gate approach and de-ice planes.

His motive was not clear, but the man could be heard on audio recordings telling air traffic controllers that he is "just a broken guy."

LISTEN: Worker who stole empty plane talks with air traffic control before crash

Video showed the plane doing large loops and other dangerous maneuvers as the sun set on the Puget Sound. John Waldrop shared the following footage from Chambers Bay Golf Course:

Mark Reger was standing in his driveway near Steilacoom when he saw the planes fly overhead.

"We looked across the water there's this huge fireball coming up off the west coast of Ketron Island, followed by smoke. There were some fire planes in the air. It clearly seemed immediately like there was a plane crash," he said.

"It's super scary when you think about how fast those planes are moving, the distance from Ketron Island to these houses in minuscule. It's really scary to think what might have happened under slightly different circumstances."

Alaska Airlines, the parent company of Horizon, released the following statement late Friday night:

"Alaska Airlines believes a ground service agent employed by Horizon Air was the individual responsible for flying the Horizon Q400 without clearance from Sea-Tac International Airport around 8 p.m. tonight. The plane, which was taken from a maintenance position and was not scheduled for passenger flight, crashed about an hour later in a wooded area on Ketron Island in rural Pierce County. No ground structures were involved at the crash site. Military jets were scrambled from Portland, but it does not appear that these jets were involved in the crash of the Horizon aircraft. This individual who took the aircraft, who has not yet been positively identified until remains are examined, is believed to have been the only person on the plane when the plane was taken from a maintenance position at Sea-Tac. First responders are at the crash site. Appropriate government agencies, including NTSB, FAA and FBI, have been notified."

Two F-15 Air National Guard fighter jets from Portland chased down the plane while it was still in the air. They did not appear to be involved in the crash.

An air traffic control operator attempted to guide the man to Joint-Base Lewis McChord: "We're just trying to find a place for you to land safely," the operator said.

The plane crash ignited a fire on the south end of Ketron Island. West Pierce Fire reports a water supply issue made for a difficult firefight, but the blaze was contained to brush and did not spread to any homes.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Saturday morning that President Donald Trump is "monitoring the situation." He's currently at his New Jersey golf club.

Spokesmen for the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration directed inquiries to local authorities.

Gov. Jay Inslee thanked the Air National Guard from Washington and Oregon for scrambling jets and said in a statement "there are still a lot of unknowns surrounding tonight's tragic incident."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An airport mechanic steals a Horizon Air Bombardier Q400 from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport in the United States, eventually crashing the plane on Ketron Island.