Breaking: Alaska Airlines Employee Steals Plane and Crashes in Puget Sound

Posted By Jon Nickel-D'Andrea on Aug 10, 2018 | 1 comment

Details are coming in about an incident that just happened a few short hours ago at SeaTac airport here in Seattle. The airport was shut down and operations have just resumed.

Around 8pm Pacific time an airline employee stole a Horizon Air Q-400 aircraft from SeaTac airport and took off, reports are coming in that there were no passengers on board.

The first news of the plane being stolen happened almost an hour after it occurred, Alaska reported it on their twitter feed.

We are aware of an incident involving an unauthorized take-off of a Horizon Air Q400. We believe there are no passengers on board. More information as we learn more.

— Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir) August 11, 2018

Someone at a park near Tacoma took this quick video. It’s creepy for sure, and imagine if you saw a plane flying low to the ground and F-15 fighters scrambling behind it.

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

The plane crashed shortly after on an island just south of the airport, Ketron Island.

Island Crash Alaska Airlines

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

UPDATE:

Twitter user Jimmy Thomson (jwsthomson) is releasing some chilling audio from the air traffic control. Here are a few of his tweets. It sounds like the person who hijacked the plane had some serious problems.

Looks like that didn’t upload correctly. Here is the clip of him asking for help getting the cabin pressurized so he isn’t “so lightheaded.” pic.twitter.com/3uDKPKGvHo

— Jimmy Thomson (@jwsthomson) August 11, 2018

Here, the air traffic controller is trying to talk him into landing. pic.twitter.com/OxEe5T6JHJ

— Jimmy Thomson (@jwsthomson) August 11, 2018

In this clip, you can see that he says “I’ve got a lot of people that care about me… I’ve just got a few screws loose.”

Here, the air traffic controller is trying to talk him into landing. pic.twitter.com/OxEe5T6JHJ

— Jimmy Thomson (@jwsthomson) August 11, 2018

We’ll continue to update this tomorrow and later on if we find out any more information. Truly sorry for his family and friends, and heres to hoping that no one else was hurt.