![]() With an unprecedented event like this, there will be a rush to judgment on what it reveals as weaknesses in airport security procedures. “I feel like one of my engines is going out or something,” he said before plummeting to death. I don’t know what the burnage is like on takeoff, but it burned quite a bit faster than I expected.” Russell seemed more concerned that his fuel was running low. ![]() The job doesn’t require flying skills, yet the hijacker had in some way acquired a significant level of competence in handling a sophisticated airplane - certainly confident enough to have selected a target building and flown into it. Ground handlers direct the handling and loading of airplanes at the gate. Luckily this was not a terrorist, but 29-year-old man Richard Russell, who worked as a ground handler for Horizon Air, the commuter arm of Alaska Airlines. The Q400 turboprop is less than half the size of the jets used on 9/11 against the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, but, loaded with fuel, it was still capable of being a flying bomb that could have taken out any of the skyscrapers in downtown Seattle. How long did it take the air traffic controllers in the tower at Seattle to realize that a rogue airplane was joining regular airline traffic? Could anything have been done to block the airplane before it took off?Īt that point, nobody knew if this was a terrorist action. Never has an otherwise empty commercial airplane parked in a maintenance area, been taken over, its two engines started, taxied out to a runway as though for a scheduled flight and took off apparently under full control. Jason Silverstein contributed to this report.There has never been an airplane hijacking like the one executed as dusk approached at Seattle on Friday. ![]() "Most importantly," he said in a voiceover about his job, "I get to visit those I love most. In a final video project set to cheery music, Russell included selfies from airport grounds and photos from his many trips. One sketch that he posted included a drawing of a Q400 plane, the same kind of plane involved in Friday's crash. Russell posted collages of photos from his trips around the world, writing that travel was "what keeps me going in the most unfavorable circumstances." It seemed like such miserable work and I never could imagine why anyone would want to subject themselves to all the constant noise, gas fumes, and heavy lifting." Every time I traveled I would look out my plane window and see these sullen looking individuals leisurely pacing around, or hectically throwing bags into a cart. ![]() "I always felt bad for the guys and gals who handled luggage. "I never thought I would work as a Ground Service Agent (GSA) for an Airlines company," he wrote in a blog post in September 2017. He said he wanted to create projects showing the contrast between his hard work on the ground and his high-flying free time traveling the globe. So many bags," he said.Ī blog that appeared to belong to Russell as part of a multimedia content creation class at Washington State University focused on his job on a ground service agent. In a humorous YouTube video he posted last year, he talked about his job and included videos and photos of his various travels. I hope they can make it through this."Īccording to his Facebook page, which had limited public access, he was from Wasilla, Alaska, and lived in Sumner, Washington, and was married in 2012. I feel really bad for Richard and for his family. "It seemed like he was well liked by the other workers. "He was a quiet guy," Rick Christenson, an operational supervisor with the airline who retired in May told The Seattle Times. Russell was "tow certified" and had full security access, and had been with the company for three and a half years, CBS News' Jamie Yuccas reports. "He worked his shift yesterday, we believe he was in uniform, his job is to be around airplanes," said Brad Tilden, CEO of Alaska Air Group, which owns Horizon Air.
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