By M.R.
THE skies above Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were closed on August 10th after an airline employee stole an empty 76-seat plane and performed death-defying aerial acrobatics before crashing the turboprop onto a small island. That no-one but the pilot himself was killed had nothing to do with intervention by the military, the airport, the airline or air-traffic controllers. It had everything to do with the relatively benign intentions of the employee, who appears not to have been a trained pilot and refused to attempt a runway landing for fear he might cause ground casualties.
Recordings of the employee’s conversation with air-traffic controllers shed light on his motives. The 29-year-old, identified only as Rich, describes himself as a “broken guy”. He appears calm and composed, and his speech is peppered with sardonic humour: about his race, his salary and his prospects of now being made a pilot by Alaska Airlines, an affiliate of Horizon. Video footage shows the plane performing a barrel roll that comes within a whisker of catastrophe. When air-traffic controllers try to offer assistance, the pilot declines their help, because “I’ve played some video games before”. Despite his remarkable situation, Rich comes across as a lonely, likeable man: “I don’t want to hurt no-one. I just want you to whisper sweet nothings into my ear.”
