Horizon Airlines turboprop stolen at Sea-Tac Airport apparently crashes in Pierce County

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Horizon Airlines turboprop stolen at Sea-Tac Airport apparently crashes in Pierce County

by KOMO Staff

Friday, August 10th 2018

SEATAC AIRPORT, Wash. - Sea-Tac Airport was put on ground stop Friday night due to a security scare, according to Alaska Airlines.

A source at JBLM said it involves a stolen plane, which two F-15's have been tasked to intercept and forced to land.

The source says the military jet made contact with the stolen plane, which then began to nose dive and crashed in North Pierce County.

Alaska Airlines said via Twitter they are aware of an incident involving an unauthorized take-off of a Horizon Air Q400. They believe there are no passengers on board.

The Pierce County Sheriff's office said it was an airline mechanic stole the plane and was apparently doing stunts in the air then crashed into Ketron Island.

Sea-Tac Airport officials said an airline employee conducted an unauthorized takeoff without passengers and the aircraft has crashed in south Puget Sound.

They said normal operations at Sea-Tac Airport have resumed.

Alaska Airlines tweeted that the plane involved is a Horizon Air Bombardier Q400 turboprop.

The Alaska Airlines web page on that plane says it is 107 feet long with a wingspan of 93 feet 3 inches and a cruising altitude of 25,000 feet. It normally contains 76 seats.

The Q400 has a cruising speed of 414 miles per hour and a crew of 2 pilots and two flight attendants.
​

 

[waltky]

Mebbe dis is it...

'Suicidal' man steals plane, crashes near Seattle
11 Aug.`18 - A stolen plane crashed Friday on a sparsely populated island near Seattle after an "unauthorized takeoff" from Sea-Tac Airport, authorities said. No passengers were on board.

Multiple law-enforcement sources told NBC News that the plane was followed by military aircraft that scrambled in the skies above Puget Sound as the man piloting the stolen plane did loops over the water. A plume of smoke was reported on or near Ketron Island, Wash., after authorities received reports that a plane was stolen, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Sea-Tac Airport tweeted, "An airline employee conducted an unauthorized takeoff without passengers at Sea-Tac; aircraft has crashed in south Puget Sound. Normal operations at Sea-Tac Airport have resumed."

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department said in a tweet that the man piloting the plane was a 29-year-old "suicidal male" from the area who "acted alone." At a news conference Friday night, Sheriff Paul A. Pastor described the situation as the theft of a prop passenger plane by someone who apparently meant no harm to anyone else. "Most terrorists don’t do loops over the water," he said. "So, there’s no indication there was a terrorist act, an attempt to attack — this this might have been a joyride gone terribly wrong." Pastor described the man as performing "air stunts."

Authorities said they did not believe there were any other injuries or casualties, though Pastor did not confirm the pilot died. Ketron Island is between Tacoma and Olympia, she said. The unauthorized takeoff occurred about 8 p.m., Alaska Airlines tweeted. The plume of smoke on the island was reported about 15 minutes later, Flockerzi said. The incident kept planes stranded on the tarmac at Sea-Tac and passengers waiting on board after landing.

Quincy Carr, who was flying in to town to perform on a Norwegian cruise line ship, said the pilot told passengers on his plane that there was an incident and they were stuck on the tarmac for about an hour. "I felt like we were on the ground and we were safe, we weren’t in the sky while something was going on," he said. "So it really wasn’t that bad — to me,” Carr told a reporter from NBC affiliate KING5 of Seattle at after getting off the plane. "But I do know there were people on the plane that were kind of panicked," he said.

Another passenger flying in from Philadelphia told the station that travelers were grounded on his flight for about 40 minutes before they were allowed to leave. The crew on that plane said there was some kind of emergency on the runway but did not tell passengers that a plane had been stolen, he said. "Of course, everyone’s pulling out their phone and finding out what’s going on, and seeing this crazy story," he said.

'Suicidal' man steals plane, crashes near Seattle

 

[Weatherman2020]

Just shows how easy they are to fly.

 

[harmonica]

nut
n^t
---noun
someone who steals an aircraft and does loops

the human brain is capable of infinite possibilities
video here:
Commercial airliner is 'hijacked from Seattle-Tacoma Airport', say reports | Daily Mail Online

 

[Ringel05]

Just shows how easy they are to fly.

Not to mention that is one ugly plane.

 

[saveliberty]

Couldn't just walk in to the blades huh?

 

[Ame®icano]

That is some crazy flying... VIDEO

 

[williepete]

 

[Picaro]

Shouldn't there be 3,000 posts in the Conspiracy/History Forum about how sinister Turbo-Props are by now?

Our resident conspiratards are falling down on the job; too busy spamming the History Forum with 45,983,698 dumbass threads about FDR's 'Death Camps!!!' and Japs being 'misunderstood n stuff'.