DESCRIBING himself to air traffic controllers as “broken”, the man who stole a Horizon Air Q400 plane from Seattle International Airport before crashing on a nearby island may have learnt how to fly from playing video games.

The man, identified as Richard Russell, worked for Horizon Airlines as a ground service agent according to The Sun, and is not believed to have had a pilot’s licence.

But in audio of the emotional conversations between the man and air traffic control, at one point he asked for help adjusting the cabin pressure and said: “I don’t need that much help; I’ve played some video games before.”

Mr Russell, 29, of Summer, Washington, also mentioned being on “minimum wage”, raising financial problems as a possible reason behind his shocking act.

He reportedly ran a bakery with his high school sweetheart wife, Hannah, until it closed in 2015.

Mr Russell’s family released a statement, describing their “devastation” over losing their “faithful husband, loving son and good friend”.

“This is a complete shock to us,” the statement said.

“We are devastated by these events, and Jesus is truly the only one holding this family together right now.”

Local Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said during Mr Russell’s flight, the F-15s fighter planes which gave chase out of Portland, in the nearby state of Oregon, arrived minutes after the plane was stolen and kept the aircraft “out of harm’s way and people on ground safe”.

Meanwhile, investigators are now focused on learning how Mr Russell managed the dramatic flight.

Horizon Air CEO Gary Beck said: “We don’t know how he learned to do that.

“Commercial aircraft are complex machines. No idea how he achieved that experience.”

We've confirmed a Horizon Air Q400 that had an unauthorized takeoff from SeaTac around 8pm has gone down near Ketron Island in Pierce County, WA. We're working to confirm who was on board, we believe there were no guests or crew on board other than the person operating the plane. — Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) August 11, 2018

Debra Eckrot from the local office of the National Transportation Safety Board said it is possible to start the plane for someone with some basic knowledge.

“They don’t necessarily use a key, so there’s switches that they use to start the aircraft,” she said.

“So if the person has basic understanding — from what I understand he was support personnel, ground personnel — they probably do have at least a basic understanding on how to start the aircraft.”

Mr Russell was studying for a degree in social sciences from Washington State University and had dreams of joining the military, according to The Sun.

But he was also, reportedly, suicidal.

Sheriff Pastor confirmed via Twitter that the man was acting alone when he made the unauthorised flight and was chased by F15 fighter planes. Local officials said the jets “were not involved in the crash”.

Caught on video, the chase started at about 7.30pm local time and ended when the turboprop 76-seater aircraft crashed on Ketron island, around 50km southwest of Seattle.

Video taken by a bystander showed the passenger plane making an unlikely upside-down aerial loop, then flying low over Puget Sound before crashing into the sparsely populated island.

The crash sparked a fire in the dense forest. Flames lit up the night as they spread from the burning wreckage to nearby trees.

An airline employee conducted an unauthorized takeoff without passengers at Sea-Tac; aircraft has crashed in south Puget Sound. Normal operations at Sea-Tac Airport have resumed. — Sea-Tac Airport (@SeaTacAirport) August 11, 2018

“Yesterday’s events will push us to learn what we can from this tragedy so that we can help prevent it from ever happening again, at our airline or any other.” – Brad Tilden, CEO Alaska Air Group — Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) August 11, 2018

WHAT PILOT TOLD CONTROL TOWER

In a conversation with the control tower, the pilot came across as excitable, confused and even apologetic.

“Congratulations, you did it,” the control tower tells him, according to an audio feed aired on CNN.

“Let’s turn around the airplane and land it and not hurt anybody on the ground.”

“I don’t know, man,” the man answers. “I don’t want to. I was kind of hoping that was going to be it, you know.”

During the conversation, the man says he had put some fuel in the plane “to go check out the Olympics” — the Olympic Mountains which lie about 160km away.

But he later worried he was running low, saying the fuel had burned “quite a bit faster than I expected.”

Air Traffic Control Audio from the stolen Q400 flight: “Hey, do you think if I land this successfully Alaska will give me a job as a pilot?” pic.twitter.com/17sScC6PFh — Benjamin Bearup (@TheAviationBeat) August 11, 2018

#Breaking: Audio from “Rich” the pilot of the stolen Horizon Air Q400 that has crashed. pic.twitter.com/xnFQb6hQPe — Benjamin Bearup (@TheAviationBeat) August 11, 2018

The control tower then urged him to land at a nearby military base.

“I wouldn’t want to do that. They probably have anti-aircraft,” he responds.

Audio confirms Mr Russell joked with traffic controllers about “going to jail” during the short flight as F15s chased him.

“This is probably jail time for life, huh?” he later said, according to a recording published by The Seattle Times.

“I’ve got a lot of people that care about me. It’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this,” he said.

“I would like to apologise to each and every one of them. Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess. Never really knew it until now.”

WARNING: Coarse language in video below. Disturbing footage.

WATCH: Video shows Stolen Horizon Airlines Q400 do loop in air and fly low to ground and water before crashing **VIDEO WARNING*** EXPLICIT LANGUAGE!



FULL STORY: https://t.co/lttJfIjmIC



(Video: Skylar Jacboson) pic.twitter.com/0UL7Dkk42V — KOMO News (@komonews) August 11, 2018

An airline employee “conducted an unauthorised takeoff” of an aeroplane carrying no passengers, then “crashed in south Puget Sound,” Sea-Tac Airport officials said on Twitter.

“This is not a terrorist incident,” Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff’s office wrote on Twitter.

“Confirmed info … this is a single suicide male. We know who he is. No others involved.” Sheriff Troyer confirmed that there were “no passengers on the plane” when it crashed.

Horizon Air CEO Constance Van Muehlen issued a video statement describing the incident.

“We believe it (the plane) was taken by a single Horizon Air employee and no other passengers or crew were on board,” she said. “Our hearts are with the family of the individual aboard as well as all of our Alaska Air and Horizon Air employees.”

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

PLANE WAS ‘LESS THAN 100 FEET’ FROM GROUND

John Waldron, who took dramatic video of the stolen plane flying in a loop, told CNN that he was out for an evening stroll when he saw the two jet fighters following the turboprop aeroplane.

His first thought was that they were practising for an air show.

“So, I started to capture video, just because I thought it was, kind of bizarre,” he told CNN.

Mr Waldron said it seemed that the jets were chasing down the aeroplane.

“I thought this is really odd. Kept the video rolling.” Then the passenger plane pilot “did a complete loop … I couldn’t believe he recovered”.

He estimated the plane at its lowest point “was no less than 100 feet (30.5m) above the water”.

Then the pilot “pulled — pretty much straight up. And kind of at an angle. And almost stalled the aircraft. Somehow he got it levelled back off. And then made his way down toward the island.”

Mr Waldron said that he was prepared to “run and take cover”. He briefly turned away, then turned back and saw the explosion as the plane crashed.

“Saw a bright, pinpoint area of flame. And the smoke. I thought, oh my god. I think he just crashed.”

‘MOST HORRIFYING THING I’VE EVER SEEN’

Video of the plane being pursued by F15s before crashing near the Chambers Bay Golf Course were captured by eyewitness Terri Emge.

“We saw this tonight. On the news now. Most surreal and horrifying thing I’ve ever seen,” she posted on Facebook with the accompanying video of smoke rising from the background.

The fighter planes are seen and heard soaring overhead.

“Just happened to be at Chambers for the sunset. Watched the whole thing unfolding for about 15 minutes when we saw the jets begin their chase.

“They didn’t shoot it down and we saw some crazy flying.”

Another witnesses commented describing her house “shaking”.

“We heard the explosion from Wollochet Bay.....thought at first it was an earthquake,” she wrote.

AIRLINE SPEAKS OUT

Alaska Airlines confirmed the crash shortly after the plane went down.

“We’ve confirmed a Horizon Air Q400 that had an unauthorised takeoff from SeaTac around 8pm has gone down near Ketron Island in Pierce County, WA.

“We’re working to confirm who was on board, we believe there were no guests or crew on board other than the person operating the plane.”

After the stolen Air Q400 took off without authorisation from Seattle’s SeaTac airport, the area went into lock down with all flights halted.

However Sea-Tac Airport has now confirmed that normal operations have resumed.

Aircraft circling #Q400 crash site on Ketron Island (bottom center), shown in relation to Sea-Tac Airport (top right). https://t.co/KP0FxohCkh pic.twitter.com/VxvfXTHkTO — Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) August 11, 2018

Airways magazine Aviation Beat correspondent Benjamin Bearup tweeted alleged air traffic control audio of the rogue pilot talking with traffic controllers.

In the audio, Mr Russell can be heard saying, “I think I am going to try to do a barrel roll and if that goes good then I am going to go nose down and call it a night.”

Locals tweeted after seeing the plane flying up, then being chased by the jets and ending in the fiery crash.

One person tweeted: “We saw it flying over the magnolia area around 8.10-ish and thought it was really odd since it was flying low and doing weird turns, how crazy!”

One man wrote on Twitter: “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.”

Morgan Chesky, a reporter for KOMO News, wrote: “Per JBLM source: After being contacted by F-15’s, stolen plane began to nose dive, crashing in north Pierce County.”

Horizon has approximately 4000 employees and serves more than 45 cities in Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Canada.

This is a Bombardier Dash 8-Q400. It is the mainstay of Horizon Air’s fleet of regional aircraft. pic.twitter.com/ORSYFluCBs — Jon Ostrower (@jonostrower) August 11, 2018

If you or someone you know needs help, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

— with AP and AFP