Airline worker who stole plane told air traffic controllers: 'I don't want to hurt no one' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

An airline employee stole an empty passenger plane from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday night and performed dangerous maneuvers in the sky before crashing on a nearby island about an hour later, killing him, officials said.

The man was identified by a senior federal aviation source as Richard Russell, whom authorities described as a 29-year-old resident of Pierce County in Washington state and an Horizon Air ground services worker.

The incident began when an Horizon Air turboprop plane took off from the runway at 7:32 p.m. local time Friday, with the man identified as Russell behind the controls and no one else on board, officials said. The 76-seat airliner was captured on video doing giant loops in the air and other risky stunts during its hour-long flight.

North American Aerospace Defense Command quickly launched two F-15 fighter jets to pursue the rogue aircraft, a federal senior aviation source told ABC News. Meanwhile, air traffic controllers "communicated with the individual who was flying the aircraft to try to help him land safely," the Federal Aviation Administration said.

An hour after the unauthorized takeoff, the plane crashed on Ketron Island, a small, sparsely populated island about 40 miles away from the airport. The fighter jets were not involved in the crash, officials said.

Aerial footage of Ketron Island showed a large fiery blaze where the plane crashed. No one on the ground was harmed and no buildings were damaged, officials said.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport flights were delayed or diverted Friday night due to the incident, with normal operations resuming by around 1 a.m., officials said.

"This might have been a joyride gone terribly wrong," said Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor.

PHOTO: An empty passenger airplane, stolen from the Seattle-Tacoma airport, makes an unlikely upside-down aerial loop, then flying low over Puget Sound before crashing into the sparsely populated Ketron Island in Washington, Aug. 10, 2018. (John Wauldron/AFP/Getty Images) More

'We don't know how he learned to do that'

Airline officials are unsure how Russell learned to operate a plane, much less perform flying stunts. There are many switches and levers to even start a plane, Horizon Air CEO Gary Beck told reporters at a news conference Saturday.

"We don’t know how he learned to do that." Beck said, adding that the man did perform some "incredible" maneuvers. "To our knowledge he did not have a pilot's license."

The man was authorized to be in the area of the airfield where the plane was parked for maintenance, officials said.

Beck said he and Brad Tilden, the CEO of Alaska Airlines, the parent company of Horizon Air, are working closely with the FBI, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration to better understand the circumstances of the unauthorized flight.

The FBI said it is leading an investigation into the incident, including interviewing the Russell's family and coworkers.

Debra Eckrote, the Western Pacific regional chief for the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators are searching through the plane wreckage to retrieve the flight data recorder, which could help determine a motive.

(MORE: Private plane nosedives into parking lot)

Flames could be seen on Ketron Island, Washington, where the stolen plane crashed late Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. (KOMO) More

'I don't want to hurt no one'

Audio recordings of the Russell's exchange with air traffic controllers were posted on Broadcastify and confirmed by federal aviation sources as authentic. In the recordings, air traffic controllers can be heard trying to persuade him to land the plane and help him do so safely. They also had experienced pilots radio in to guide him on flying.

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