SeaTac stolen plane

[rookiepilot]

Nothing personal, BE02.

It's just....I find it ironic in our media and culture, it's considered very wrong to mock others based on gender, orientation, physical infirmities, race, and likely a whole bunch of other stuff. And rightly so. I don't support racism, or any ism, in any regard.

But it's totally fair game for anyone to mock mental illness, especially among white males.

Check out the suicide rates among middle aged white men. Disturbing, and zero attention in our PC culture where a stray off word to a "minority" is headline news and grounds for social media crucifying.

Everyone has a phone ready to film someone's outburst. No one digs, why.

Check this out: let's even go after the homeless for being white males, and mentally ill, perhaps.
Nice.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/christ ... asculinity

[laminar]

It wasn't a joke. Until they find human remains, faking ones death is always an investigative possibility. See below.

Russell has been presumed dead in the crash of the Horizon Air Q400 turboprop on Ketron Island, though investigators continue to search the site.

OK fair enough. That is a possibility I suppose. I listened to the audio though. Heartbreaking all I'm saying.

I mean, I'm a realist, I understand it's 99.99% that he went down with that plane. It's just the oddest case of mental illness I've ever scene, and yes, I've dealt with a lot of mental illness over the years.

It's incredible that someone that has no diagnoses of mental illness, even by his own admission, that was the first time he even noticed it. To then have a suicidal episode and still have the wherewithal to start a relatively complex machine, taxi, fly etc. Its a pretty unique situation. I'm no pyschologist, but this is almost beyond belief. It makes me believe that there has to be more to this.

But, maybe it's as cut and dry as everyone is saying.

I once dealt with a woman who was able to recite the US states in alphabetic and reverse alphabetic order while pushing a knife into her own chest. I have had people in severe psychotic breaks who have been able to remember a minute detail of a conversation I had with them years prior. The human mind is incredible. While a suicidal person “on the edge” can sometimes seem like their mind is gone they can be very “with it” which makes the situation even more dangerous if you let your guard down.

[Victory]

"Hey, do you think if I land this successfully, Alaska will give me a job as a pilot?"
"You know, I think they would give you a job doing anything if you could pull this off."
"Yeah right!... Nah, I'm a white guy."

Says a lot really.

[BE02 Driver]

Nothing personal, BE02.

It's just....I find it ironic in our media and culture, it's considered very wrong to mock others based on gender, orientation, physical infirmities, race, and likely a whole bunch of other stuff. And rightly so. I don't support racism, or any ism, in any regard.

But it's totally fair game for anyone to mock mental illness, especially among white males.

Check out the suicide rates among middle aged white men. Disturbing, and zero attention in our PC culture where a stray off word to a "minority" is headline news and grounds for social media crucifying.

Everyone has a phone ready to film someone's outburst. No one digs, why.

Check this out: let's even go after the homeless for being white males, and mentally ill, perhaps.
Nice.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/christ ... asculinity

I agree with you. I think this might just spur some good debate about some of the stigmas around mental health issues. In general I'm not a fan of the way the media reports.

I would love if someone on here with a degree or specific expertise in this field could perhaps shed some light on what they think happened here.

I'd love to get some insight on how someone can have literally zero issues, and then just snap and steal a plane with no apparent precursors to mental health. Then while in crisis operate a plane that they have zero training on. This seems very unique.

On the other note, regarding the post about jail time.....well you can't just remove general derturance. Saying that he might have landed if he wasn't facing jail is non-sense.....perhaps he would have, but in the meantime how many more people would steal planes if it wasn't illegal?

[rookiepilot]

I'm no expert, but seems to me you answer it yourself.

Due to the stigma you reference, no one would disclose any mental issues willingly. Wouldn't do much for ones career advancement.

Metal aircraft parts have a fatigue limit. No apparent issues, then catastrophic failure.

Maybe some people are the same.

[duele]

I listened to the 25 minute clip of the radio conversations. The frequency was of course quite busy and periodically there would be an exchange between the controllers and Rich. I'm curious why they didn't seem to try to have him switch to a different frequency so that someone could have continually been talking to him?

[duele]

Rich even says himself at one point "I'd like to shoot the shit with you guys, but it's all just business." I don't mean to criticize what anyone did in response to the situation, but it just seems strange to me that there was fairly minimal communications with this rogue plane?

[goingnowherefast]

Was the plane intentionally crashed, or was it over-stressed/over-sped until it fell apart, unable to be controlled and crashed?

[Back2Final]

The air traffic control audio you are listening to is not the complete tape of a specific frequency.It jumps around from tower to departure and approach. I'm quite sure whatever frequency Richie showed up on was sterilized and all other traffic moved to another freq. What we are able to hear may only part of the conversations that went on during this event.

[Eric Janson]

I'd love to get some insight on how someone can have literally zero issues, and then just snap and steal a plane with no apparent precursors to mental health. Then while in crisis operate a plane that they have zero training on. This seems very unique.

No expert regarding Mental Health issues but one possible explanation is medication - either wearing off or side effects from being taken.

Medication can have some very detrimental side effects.

[Old fella]

Mental health is one if not the biggest challenges facing our society today, resources are sadly lacking here in Canada to deal with what many in the medical profession say is a crisis. Just looking around and seeing the opeiod drug situation, mental issues and incarceration rates, suicide. It cuts across all professions,demography and age. Nobody is left untouched, I heard the many stories from my two family members in the health profession. We have to feel for the love ones of this man whose lives have been shattered and the ongoing difficulties in picking up the pieces of their lives and moving on. If there is any consolation this guy in the final stage of mental breakdown elected not to take innocents with him. This isn’t always the case.

Very sad indeed.

[youhavecontrol]

A few thoughts about this incident that came across my mind:

1. I feel really sorry for this man, for his family, and those that knew and cared about him. He obviously seemed like a very intelligent man who had some serious problems in his life and was pushed into desperation. I also feel bad for the crew that have to deal with this wreckage and his body recovery, for the controllers and witnesses of the accident and for the man's co-workers that have to deal with his loss.

2. Maybe I should feel bad for thinking this, but that was some impressive flying, both for him, and the Q400... it's basically what every kid does in flight sim after about 20 minutes of flying a big aircraft around.

[Dry Guy]

In his conversation with ATC he mentions he had doubts Alaska would hire him as a pilot because he was white. I think a lot of us have probably had this feeling at one point or another during our careers.

[Rockie]

With regards to the flying, when I saw the video I not only thought he was a pilot but aerobatically trained too. A barrel roll isn't that easy to do matching the roll rate with the pitch rate through changing "G" conditions moving through inverted. It's really hard to believe practice on a flight sim can do that.

[photofly]

In his conversation with ATC he mentions he had doubts Alaska would hire him as a pilot because he was white. I think a lot of us have probably had this feeling at one point or another during our careers.

Only the white ones. The black pilots probably had doubts that anyone would hire them because they were black.

[duele]

The air traffic control audio you are listening to is not the complete tape of a specific frequency.It jumps around from tower to departure and approach. I'm quite sure whatever frequency Richie showed up on was sterilized and all other traffic moved to another freq. What we are able to hear may only part of the conversations that went on during this event.

His complaint to them indicates he wanted to talk to them and was frustrated they were busy. Doesn't sound like he was on a sterile frequency atleast for the first while to the point where he said that.

[Rowdy]

I can hear the overspeed alarm in a bunch of the audio clips.

It also sounds like he was at takeoff power from videos as it passed overhead. Would explain his complaints of high fuel burn...

I too wonder if the airplane finally just came apart. Couple rolls, a half loop, bunch of hard turns, most likely while overspeeding.

Tragic all around. I think anyone, regardless of color, gender or background has felt that way at some point. We really don't do enough for those with mental health issues.. You wouldn't tell someone with a broken leg and compound fracture to just 'walk it off' would you? Yet we tell people to just 'be happy' all the time...

[Invertago]

I feel really sad for Rich and the outcome here. It also had me wonder though. Had he landed the plane, what would the charge be? Grand theft? Property has been returned but likely damaged. FAA fines and violations, ya probably, not like they could yank his license. Public endangerment related charges I guess. Probably some sorta jail sentence or mental institute. Probably a book deal and fame in the end that would pay out better then the lost years of ramp worker wages.


Just imaging a different better end to the story. I might have tried that angle to talk him out of it myself. Even in jail, this kinda crime is not likely something the other inmates would have beat him up for.

[AirFrame]

With regards to the flying, when I saw the video I not only thought he was a pilot but aerobatically trained too. A barrel roll isn't that easy to do matching the roll rate with the pitch rate through changing "G" conditions moving through inverted. It's really hard to believe practice on a flight sim can do that.

Don't forget we don't have a cockpit view, just a grainy video. Even a poorly executed barrel roll could look pretty good from the outside filmed by a shaky handheld phone cam. It's unlikely he was all that coordinated, he was just coordinated "enough" to complete the manoeuver without ripping the plane apart in the process.

[rigpiggy]

Ssri's have the known side effects of suicidal tendencies. Just listened to i think a w5 or something report on it