WA - Major security incident at SeaTac Airport. All planes are grounded, Aug 2018

[bluesneakers]

If he couldn't afford a plane then why would he want to learn how to fly? Its not like driving a car where as you can easily buy, borrow or rent 1. Jmo

People have all kinds of crazy, unrealistic dreams.

 

[rosemadderlake]

Came across a comment on the www that hit me: "He flew not to die, but to live."

There's a certain poetry to the free bird.

Of course he was reckless, what was he thinking? This dude was loved. Of course there are ways to free the free bird without endangering Seattle and points beyond.

You know, it could be as instantaneous as getting admonished, held responsible for something he had no part in, a bully manager, after busting his tarmac all day long. I'm sure Horizon Air has its management problems, too.

Maybe he snapped? Where's the beautiful sunset? Where's that mama orca and her baby? Where's the poetry?

That moment in the movie Network; I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore.

I remember 29 years old... It is a crossroad time.

I remember in my own experience having the world all figured out at 18 years old, and then Blam, Pow, Zoom! ...Omg...

There were some dark reckonings, troubled waters, and valleys to cross.

 

[rosemadderlake]

Flying a plane is hardly rocket science. What is interesting is that now, access to secure areas will scrutinized, and probably require double access to secure areas, meaning supervision would have to approve access in real time.

Bbm: There's some Mercury Seven, and Chuck Yeager in every pilot, I'm sure of that...

And afaik, there are no flying jobs posted with no rocket science experience?

What Rich Russell had was natural instinct. It was bursting to get out. Imo

And my goodness, certain athletes are gifted beyond their training. Dancers, martial arts, sports, become agents, LE, and secret security, and legislators...

I imagine going from two dimension (simulation) to three dimension real thing reality is complex. Avaition is one of the master arts. The body has to feel it, learn it, know it and memorize it, as well...

Like a cartwheel.

 

[jjenny]

I don’t get the hero part.

He put others in danger at every step from the airport to taking off to flying over populated areas to doing a trick to crashing and bringing in rescue. The airspace was shut down for hours causing a chain of delays that caused missed connections - maybe someone was going to the bedside of a dying relative or was a doctor who had to miss a surgery.

I get that he seemed endearing and like you’d want to have a beer with him, but a hero? No way.

I was sarcastic. Hero does something heroic. Stealing a plane and then crushing it isn't heroic.

 

[rosesfromangels]

No, I was just making a comment. It's something people can do and anyone can do it. The biggest trick to getting a pilot's license is paying for it.

But I don't think you need elite special top secret training to do what he did.

I don't know about that Blue, I tend to see it otherwise.
Any jet pilots want to weigh in and calibrate my opinion?

 

[Laughing]

If he couldn't afford a plane then why would he want to learn how to fly? Its not like driving a car where as you can easily buy, borrow or rent 1. Jmo

Actually, renting family-sized aircraft is typical. Not every family can afford the airplane 24/7/365. They are expensive, require constant upkeep & constant upgrades, constant maintenance. Move further from Grandma? Might cost less to rent a plane for the week & buy fuel, compared to driving, meals, and lodging plus giving up the travel time.

General aviation is generally separated from commercial aviation for everyone' safety. You may never have been in an airport with small planes for rent. Airports with flight schools usually planes for rent, because you have to practice. Required to keep that license, a certain number of take-offs and landings within timeframes.

In my family, we rented planes and also were part-owners of others. Three or four families pool resources & hammer out the vacation schedule.

There use to be a TV show about freight haulers in Alaska and northern Canada --

Flying Wild Alaska (TV Series 2011– ) - IMDb

The show depicted several of their pilots as -- well -- surf bums of the air. They could understand the aircraft & the weather and fly though most anything but weren't cut out for corporate life.

ETA: Maybe that was Ice Pilots??? IDK

Maybe Beebo Russell saw himself in that picture?

YMMV

 

[bears10]

Actually, renting family-sized aircraft is typical. Not every family can afford the airplane 24/7/365. They are expensive, require constant upkeep & constant upgrades, constant maintenance. Move further from Grandma? Might cost less to rent a plane for the week & buy fuel, compared to driving, meals, and lodging plus giving up the travel time.

General aviation is generally separated from commercial aviation for everyone' safety. You may never have been in an airport with small planes for rent. Airports with flight schools usually planes for rent, because you have to practice. Required to keep that license, a certain number of take-offs and landings within timeframes.

In my family, we rented planes and also were part-owners of others. Three or four families pool resources & hammer out the vacation schedule.

There use to be a TV show about freight haulers in Alaska and northern Canada --

Flying Wild Alaska (TV Series 2011– ) - IMDb

The show depicted several of their pilots as -- well -- surf bums of the air. They could understand the aircraft & the weather and fly though most anything but weren't cut out for corporate life.

ETA: Maybe that was Ice Pilots??? IDK

Maybe Beebo Russell saw himself in that picture?

YMMV

If the guy was making minimum wage, I highly doubt he could afford lessons to be able to rent a plane, let alone afford the cost to rent a plane for a week to go see grandma. Lol.

 

[CARIIS]

Oh my god. I’m sitting at lunch reading this and dying laughing. And now people are looking at me funny. Love you, CARIIS!


.

lov ya and your baby back my dear!!

 

[CARIIS]

1. a man of great strength and courage, favored by the gods and in part descended from them, often regarded as a demigod and worshiped after his death
2. any person, esp. a man, admired for courage, nobility, or exploits, esp. in war
3. any person, esp. a man, admired for qualities or achievements and regarded as an ideal or model
4. the central male character in a novel, play, poem, etc., with whom the reader or audience is supposed to sympathize; protagonist
5. the central figure in any important event or period, honored for outstanding qualities

Although some are admiring Rich as a “hero” in the sense of the second definition (debatable), he certainly doesn’t fit the third definition. Rich is only a “hero” in the sense of the fourth definition IMO, except that he is the central character in his own real life story, not fiction. In that sense, he is a “tragic hero” to those who sympathize with him. But I doubt Rich would consider himself a hero at all.

While I certainly sympathize with whatever mental health issues he may have had, he did a really stupid and dangerous thing for whatever reasons. It was not courageous or noble or something to initiate, which is the definition of a hero.

I wish he had made a different choice, and my heart goes out to his wife and family who have to live with his loss and his legacy.

Hero dictionary definition | hero defined

this has been strange for me

never considered this tradegy as a hero

it is two things

his humor - is like mine --blindingly fast it just happens my mother is like this - its a born thing

as an aviation lover that is the other part

incredulous the other when the media is asking isn't there a key

oh lord help us all

this haunts me

ghost ship fire haunted me

pulse haunted me

by haunt i mean driving along or putting dishes in the dishwasher it comes back but this one does have a happy ending

indeed messed up traffic etc etc

but at least people were not burned or out dancing and dead having fun at a concert or at a bar that I had been to a couple of times years ago - unlike many imo that was not terrorsim it was a hate crime which obviously for me is bothersome

Labute haunted me Zachery Marr haunted me the picture of him standing outside in the cold with his head leaning forward and looking to the right is sad the next one of him smoking alone and obviously freezing is sad

this is intrusive moo

====

"Calling it a night" meant he had every intention of crashing and ending his life, IMO.

Especially his "nose down" comment.

and then "I KINDA hoped that would be it

the "kinda is incredible

such loss confusion but imo two ways last min chicken out while at the same instant this is just too much fun i did it what do i have to loose i want to do some more

The "serenity comments, and "seeing things so differently were

imo totally suicidal


so was the use of " know I am gonna DISAPPOINT

torment

 

[CARIIS]

de;ete

 

[CARIIS]

On a minimum wage job? I don't think so. Plus from listening to him, I doubt he had the mentality to take flight lessons.

if true -- the want of military kinda made me think there at might be something medical that prevented him from flying

++++++
re For some reason I don't think he had to have had any covert lessons to do what he did but I really have no idea and wonder if we'll ever know more.

what games he had at home might be telling - but the fbi is in this so we may never know - his SM was all about his job and travel (that is aviation - travel )

=====================

oh sh$t I never thought about cival aviation - dumb me --chilling

=================================

f
re

Flying a plane is hardly rocket science. What is interesting is that now, access to secure areas will scrutinized, and probably require double access to secure areas, meaning supervision would have to approve access in real time.

do not hold your breath- aint gonna happen -- the cost of doing so is incredible -- what it is is creating a second TSA

 

[CARIIS]

another one button would be awesome !

 

[CARIIS]

Came across a comment on the www that hit me: "He flew not to die, but to live."

There's a certain poetry to the free bird.

Of course he was reckless, what was he thinking? This dude was loved. Of course there are ways to free the free bird without endangering Seattle and points beyond.

You know, it could be as instantaneous as getting admonished, held responsible for something he had no part in, a bully manager, after busting his tarmac all day long. I'm sure Horizon Air has its management problems, too.

Maybe he snapped? Where's the beautiful sunset? Where's that mama orca and her baby? Where's the poetry?

That moment in the movie Network; I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore.

I remember 29 years old... It is a crossroad time.

I remember in my own experience having the world all figured out at 18 years old, and then Blam, Pow, Zoom! ...Omg...

There were some dark reckonings, troubled waters, and valleys to cross.

once again an amazing post -- love reading you my dear

==============

↑
No, I was just making a comment. It's something people can do and anyone can do it. The biggest trick to getting a pilot's license is paying for it.

But I don't think you need elite special top secret training to do what he did.
I don't know about that Blue, I tend to see it otherwise.
Any jet pilots want to weigh in and calibrate my opinion?

trust me you and I don't want me to be a pilot -- but it is a passion-- it is incredible stuff

=============

oh good lord that lady that was reporting on the plane crash into the home was worse than a quaalude !! talk flat - she reminded me of a manikin! Was thinking ugh oh having dinner with her would be torture !!!!!!!

 

[Lilibet]

Beautiful post, Rose, especially your last few lines.

“I remember 29 years old... It is a crossroad time.

I remember in my own experience having the world all figured out at 18 years old, and then Blam, Pow, Zoom! ...Omg...

There were some dark reckonings, troubled waters, and valleys to cross.”
BBM

The song “Many Rivers to Cross” by Jimmy Cliff came into my mind and wouldn’t leave.

Cliff was 21 when he wrote and recorded it and he says:

“I was struggling, with work, life, my identity, I couldn’t find my place; frustration fuelled the song.”

“It became a classic, because everyone can relate to it, everyone at some point asks ‘Who am I? Why am I here? What am I going to do?’ ”
Jimmy Cliff interview: 'I still have many rivers to cross'

For Rich, and anyone else who may have been asking these questions...A beautiful version from Cliff’s SNL appearance in 1975...

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[DakotaMayi]

I don't think this young man planned a suicide in this way at all. I think young men can be very impulsive. He was 29 years old, an age where one thinks one is invincible.

An underlying death wish? The Evel Knievel kind? Maybe... He was definitely fulfilling something huge. I think he saw the opportunity, had access, jumped on it, and slipped that airplane in the taxi line and boom, executed a take off. If he never flew a plane before, and I don't think he did, that alone was incredible.

Wild does not even begin to describe the circles he was making in the sky with that jet. It was so in the moment, he wasn't thinking anything through. So in the moment it sparked a confessional that bubbled up from his subconscious? And, his kindness to acknowledge his loved ones. Oh my. When he saw the two fighter jets tailing him, and it sunk in, his joyride became the harsh reality that he's screwed, live or die. And, he just knew.

I feel the Sky King reaction that I'm seeing around the web is about that moment of death. And it is romanticized just like love and life. The great gig in the sky.

Knowing that he, by sheer grace, did not kill anyone else, I can't be mad at him either.

I don't know. 29? "an age where one thinks one is invincible."? You talk about him like he is an impulsive kid who just thought he was having a bit of fun. 29 is not young enough to be that stupid.

While I have anxiety and depression myself and I cannot look too far into what he felt, because depression is definitely not a one size fits all, I can't have sympathy for this act alone. It was stupid, dangerous, reckless and selfish. I'm not sure I can talk about his "kindness". He just risked a whole lot of people's lives.

Although, I do feel extremely sympathetic towards him for the ill health he had suffered.

 

[Seattle1]

Sea-Tac Airport’s security challenge: 13,600 people have access to aircraft
Originally published August 13, 2018 at 11:41 am Updated August 13, 2018 at 8:08 p

Richard “Beebo” Russell was one of about 13,600 people with access to aircraft at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to an airport spokesman, a number that highlights security challenges at one of the fastest-growing airports in the United States.

“All of those people have a job to do on those ramps,” Sea-Tac spokesman Perry Cooper said. In Russell’s case, “it wasn’t a red flag to anybody to be out on the cargo area or around an aircraft, he had a job to do.”

The airport has added temporary security measures after Russell, a ground-service agent, took off Friday in a Q400 turboprop plane and crashed it into a south Puget Sound island, officials said.
Sea-Tac Airport’s security challenge: 13,600 people have access to aircraft

 

[CARIIS]

around 1046
long sweep of crash site

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[Seattle1]

‘Video games’? Pilots wonder how plane thief learned to do aerial acrobatics
Originally published August 13, 2018 at 6:45 pm Updated August 13, 2018 at 7:34 pm

Horizon Chief Executive Officer Gary Beck told reporters that Russell didn’t appear to have a pilot’s license. Yet aviation instructors, pilots and safety experts suspect that he had some sort of training, whether from a flight-simulator game or some form of lessons.

Mary Schiavo, an aviation attorney and former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, said video of some of his turns looked smooth, or “coordinated” in pilot parlance, keeping the plane’s nose from veering to one side or the other.

“It looked like he had some skills,” she said. “It looked like he had touched the controls of an airplane before.”

Though Schiavo and other experts think Russell’s flying prowess indicated prior experience in the cockpit, one longtime family friend, who works for the Federal Aviation Administration, said that he did not have any knowledge of Russell going to flight ground school in Alaska, where Russell lived before moving to Oregon and, later, Washington. He also never saw Russell use a flight simulator and did not know how he figured out how to fly the Bombardier Q400 plane.

“For us it was a shock that he would be able to take off in that,” Mike Criss, a resident of Wasilla, Alaska, who has known Russell for more than two decades, told the Anchorage Daily News on Monday.
‘Video games’? Pilots wonder how plane thief learned to do aerial acrobatics

 

[CARIIS]

Sea-Tac Airport’s security challenge: 13,600 people have access to aircraft
Originally published August 13, 2018 at 11:41 am Updated August 13, 2018 at 8:08 p

Richard “Beebo” Russell was one of about 13,600 people with access to aircraft at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to an airport spokesman, a number that highlights security challenges at one of the fastest-growing airports in the United States.

“All of those people have a job to do on those ramps,” Sea-Tac spokesman Perry Cooper said. In Russell’s case, “it wasn’t a red flag to anybody to be out on the cargo area or around an aircraft, he had a job to do.”

The airport has added temporary security measures after Russell, a ground-service agent, took off Friday in a Q400 turboprop plane and crashed it into a south Puget Sound island, officials said.
Sea-Tac Airport’s security challenge: 13,600 people have access to aircraft

some other numbers

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport boasts its own police, fire protection and emergency medical services and a daily workforce of over 60,000 people.

At Los Angeles International Airport, the Badging Office has issued badges for 50,000 airport workers, reports LAX public relations director Nancy Castles.

At San Antonio International Airport, Michael Castillo keeps track of the keys issued for the airport's 4,000 doors

12 Amazing Aerial Views of Airports | Architectural Digest

 

[CARIIS]

ah madrid nice one simple line!