Description

In August 2018, Richard “Beebo” Russell, a 29-year-old ground service agent at Seattle Airport, using his ground clearance, he got into the cockpit of a Horizon Air Q400 aircraft. Even though he had never operated an aircraft before, he managed to start the plane, taxi it onto the runway, and take off. For about 75 minutes, he flew around the Puget Sound area while talking calmly with air traffic control. He kept the plane over open water and unpopulated areas, never meaning to harm others. To the dismay of everyone watching, the untrained Russell performed a successful backflip coming only several feet from the water. Richard refused attempts to guide him to a safe landing, he had made up his mind. The flight ended when the plane crashed on Ketron Island, killing him. No one else was harmed. Ben Howard wrote a song about it, and I happened to listen to it a few days after seeing this story.