According to King-5 NBC in Seattle, a 29-year old mechanic at SeaTac International Airport hijacked a reportedly empty Q400 commercial plane and performed an unauthorized take off at around 8:30 PM PST. Here’s video taken from the ground by a resident near the airport.
(Explicit language)
#BREAKING Alaska Airlines says it is aware of an incident involving an unauthorized take-off of a Horizon Air plane from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. This video was taken by a woman who lives south of the airport. She says this is the plane. (Courtney Jensen Junka) pic.twitter.com/Zh3E4aGfSk
— Fox26 News (@KMPHFOX26) August 11, 2018
Here’s reported audio of a bizarre exchange between the hijacker and air traffic controller as they attempt to get him to land. The hijacker responds, “Yeah, I’m not ready to bring it down just yet.” He also asks if he’s looking at life in prison.
Here, the air traffic controller is trying to talk him into landing. pic.twitter.com/OxEe5T6JHJ
— Jimmy Thomson (@jwsthomson) August 11, 2018
This tweet has the full 25-minute exchange.
The audio archives are here – https://t.co/c92RBC5jIp
— Josh Ogle (@joshogle) August 11, 2018
The hijacker proceeded to fly the plane toward Puget Sound as it was tailed by military F-15 fighter jets. An individual at a party by the Chambers Bay Golf Club caught video of the low flying plane buzzing their location as the jets followed. It doesn’t appear on the video, but you can hear the guy say that the plane just did a loop de loop.
Full video form John Waldron on Facebook being shown on CNN #seatac pic.twitter.com/R98bl5uQBr
— Cameron Thomsen (@CameronThomsen) August 11, 2018
(Explicit language)
Some dude stole a plane from #Seatac (Allegedly), did a loop-the-loop, ALMOST crashed into #ChambersBay, then crossed in front of our party, chased by fighter jets and subsequently crashed. Weird times. pic.twitter.com/Ra4LcIhwfU
— bmbdgty (@drbmbdgty) August 11, 2018
After the plane circled the water for a time, it reportedly crashed into Ketron Island on the Sound. This is video reportedly taken immediately after the alleged crash. The statis of the pilot is currently unknown, but based on the video it doesn’t look promising. We’ll update this as we find more video and information.
Video showing the moments that the stolen plane crashed outside of Seattle 😳 pic.twitter.com/ZkHvhouHlN
— Kris Hanson (@KrisHansonRCF) August 11, 2018