Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess. I would like to apologize to each and every one of them. It’s going to disappoint them to hear I did this. I’ve got a lot of people that care about me. Many of these clips can be heard on Jimmy Thomson’s thread on Twitter as excerpts from the ATC recordings. Meanwhile, the story of the man in control of the aircraft started to come through on ATC, interspersed with references to crashing the plane and surprised at how fast the fuel was going down. They flew the 130 miles to Sea-Tac in four minutes and hoped to direct the Dash-8 over the Pacific Ocean. Two F-15C jets were scrambled out of Portland airport. Tower: OK and Rich, do you know, are you able to tell what altitude you are at? As the air traffic controller attempted to make sense of what was going on, it quickly became clear that the man was not a pilot. The Dash 8 departed the runway and a man referring to himself as ‘Rich’ made contact with the controller once up in the air. The Alaska Airlines Cargo ramp at the base of the tower was in no way related to this story. This is how the aircraft was able to start up and quickly taxi to runway 16C virtually unnoticed. Horizon Air routinely uses this space for maintenance or overflow parking. The incident aircraft came from the north cargo ramp, just east of the runway 16L threshold. Note: Steve Carlson has written in to say: Maybe the aircraft thief was aware of this, from casual knowledge and “shop talk” during three years on the job – or (more probably) maybe he wasn’t, and it was just dumb luck. Note proximity of tower and Alaska Air Cargo ramp: The tower, in “reverse angle” to show how the cab windows are blocked from close-in ground views, without some controller gymnastics: And if it is dusk, and no beacons/navlights were turned on (anyone know?), even less attention-attracting. It is also, as previously mentioned, a “non-movement area” that is not part of ATC responsibility or interest, until the aircraft reaches the checkerboard hold line at the taxiway entry. But without a radio call for engine start or taxi clearance, not within the “normal scan” of the runways and active taxi routes. Probably visible, if the controller stands up and leans over his “desk” or whatever other equipment he is using, to look down. Unless the controllers have a glass floor to look through (which they don’t – in fact there is a structural “bulge” below the tower cab that further limits downward sight lines), a plane on that ramp is not going to be “obvious” to the control tower. Which is directly at the foot of the 300-foot (100m)-tall main control tower at Sea-Tac. This Alaska/Horizon aircraft was almost certainly parked on the cargo ramp of its parent company, Alaska Air (if reports that it was on “the cargo ramp” are correct). On the question of starting up the engines without being noticed: He came flying out of the cargo area via Delta.Ī poster called pattern_is_full on the Professional Pilot’s Rumour Network gave some detail on the layout of Seattle, explaining how the aircraft could make it to the runway so quickly. They are…they are right now just rolling down the runway. Who’s the aircraft on runway one six center? That aircraft just our right and taking off The controller paused to deal with other traffic and finally received a response to his question, but not from the aircraft. Who is the Dash 8 holding on runway one six center? The Dash 8 on runway one six center, say your callsign. TowerĪircraft on Charlie lining up runway one six center, say your callsign. You can listen to the interaction on this YouTube video with some of the ATC recordings. On Friday, the 10th of August 2018, Seattle looked on in horror as a de Havilland Dash 8-400 flew what appeared to be aerobatics over the Puget Sound before crashing onto Ketron Island.Īt about 19:35 local time, the controller at Seattle Tacoma Airport (SEATAC) realised there was an unidentified aircraft on runway 16C.
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