Richard Russell told air traffic control that he had ‘a few screws loose’ before crashing the aircraft
A man who stole a plane and took it on an unauthorised flight before plunging to his doom left an emotional message to his loved ones from the cockpit.
Back in 2018, Richard Russell stole an empty passenger plane from Seattle Airport, USA, to take it on a joyride while making a harrowing admission to air traffic control.
The Horizon Air ground service agent from Sumner, Washington, didn’t have a pilot licence, having been part of a tow team on the runway, which repositions aircraft once it’s time to taxi, for around four years.
Russell was presumed dead after performing a number of stunts in the aircraft and being pursued by fighter jets, before he crashed into Ketron Island in the Puget Sound, Washington on August 10, 2018.
He had full clearance to be on the runway at Sea-Tac International Airport, using a pushback tractor machine to board the Horizon Air Q400 after moving it, taking off in the evening and travelling across the Washington airspace.
Audio recordings from the flight reveal an air traffic controller trying to get him to land the plane, though Russell resisted.
In what is recorded as his final conversation, he said that he knew his actions would let his loved ones down, in a recording broadcast by ITV.
Russell died as a result of the crash (Youtube/Richard Russell)
Speaking to air traffic control while in the air, Russell could be heard saying: “I’ve got a lot of people that care about me. It’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this,
“I would like to apologise to each and every one of them,” he said.
“Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess, never really knew it till now,” Russell admitted.
He went on to say that he might land it, before adding that he might attempt a barrel roll before wanting to go ‘nose down and call it a night’.
The 29-year-old’s family said in a statement that they were ‘stunned and heartbroken’ at the man’s crime and death.
Nicknamed Beebo, they said that he was ‘a faithful husband, a loving son and a good friend’, adding: “It may seem difficult for those watching at home to believe, but Beebo was a warm, compassionate man.”
The plane could be seen doing outrageous flips in the air (ITV)
Videos captured of the incident showed fiery flames on the island, which was only sparsely populated, with no buildings on the ground damaged.
Former FBI agent and transportation expert Erroll Southers told The Associated Press: “Here we have an employee who was vetted to the level to have access to the aircraft and had a skill set proficient enough to take off with that plane.
“If he had the skill set to do loops with a plane like this, he certainly had the capacity to fly it into a building and kill people on the ground,” he claimed.
Federal investigators clarified that the plane broke into several pieces, while Debra Eckrote, a regional chief with the National Transportation Safety Board, stated that the wings were off the plane and the fuselage was upside down.
Featured Image Credit: Youtube/Richard Russell / JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images
.png)
A person’s last words before they die can be eerie by nature – but those of death row inmates are often especially chilling.
Some of them choose to protest their innocence while others apologise to the victims and their families.
And many choose to use their final moments to send love to their families before they pass.
But one death row inmate’s message to his family left a lot of people rather confused – however, it was only intended for one person.
In 1991, Robert Charles Towery was sentenced to death after killing 68-year-old Mark Jones when he robbed his home.
Chillingly, the victim knew his killer, having previously hired him as a mechanic and loaned him money.
On the day of the crime, Towery and his accomplice, Randy Barker, went Jones’ home and pretended that their car had broken down and they needed to use his phone.
Once inside the house, they handcuffed him and robbed him at gun point, taking money, jewellery and other valuables.
Towery then injected the 68-year-old with battery acid and strangled him to death with plastic ties.
Robert Charles Towery was sentenced to death for robbing and murdering a man in 1991 (Clark Prosecutor)
Jones’ body was found the next day, and the pair were caught when trying to dump his car.
Barker was released from prison in 2001 after testifying against his accomplice and agreeing to a plea deal, but Towery was sentenced to death for his crimes.
He was executed by lethal injection on 8 March, 2012, at the age of 47.
In his last words before he died, he apologised to his victim’s family and then sent a ‘secret message’ to his family.
He said: “I would like to apologise to Mark’s family and friends for what I did to them. I would like to apologise to my family.
“So many times in my life I went left when I should have gone right and I went right when I should have gone left. It was mistake after mistake.
In his final words, Towery sent a secret message to his family – in particular his nephew (Arizona Department of Corrections)
“I love my family. Potato, potato, potato.”
They may seem like an odd choice of words but Towery’s lawyer, Dale Baich, has since revealed that it was, in fact, a message to his nephew.
Apparently, the sound you make when you say ‘potato’ is similar to the noise a motorbike’s engine makes.
According to the Arizona Mirror, the pair were ‘Harley Davidson buffs’ and Towery used the words to tell his nephew that ‘everything was okay’.
Featured Image Credit: Arizona Department of Corrections/iStock
A family friend of missing university student Riley Strain has shut down a theory circulating about the final text message he sent before vanishing.
The 22-year-old University of Missouri student was visiting Nashville, Tennessee, with his fraternity brothers on 8 March after they were kicked out of a bar for allegedly drinking too much, despite the bar’s transaction history suggesting that he only purchased two waters and one alcoholic beverage.
According to CCTV footage, Riley was walking alone at 9.46 pm, passing a police officer on Gay St at 9.52 pm.
X/@MNPDNashville
Riley and the officer had a brief exchange before Officer Reginald Young asked him how he was, to which Riley allegedly replied: “Good, how about you?”
Officer Young then continued to check vehicles up and down the street after being called out for a vehicle burglary.
When Riley walked away, this was the last known footage or sighting of him.
Taking to X, Nashville police said: “No video has been discovered that shows Riley away from Gay St after the 9:52 p.m. timeframe.”
Two days later, on 10 March, Riley’s bank card was found on the embankment of the Cumberland River.
Family friend Chris Dingman has since revealed that Riley was texting a female friend the night he went missing.
Shown was Riley’s brief exchange of greetings w/ Officer Reginald Young on Gay St., south of the Woodland St.
Bridge, on the night of 3/8. Riley did not appear distressed. Officer Young was there on a vehicle burglary call & remained on that portion of Gay St. for 45 min.
He told NewsNation that when she ‘texted him to see how he was doing’, Riley responded with: “Good lops.”
Dingman revealed that neither he nor Riley’s friend could make sense of the text.
People who have been following the case on social media have speculated that ‘lops’ might be an acronym for ‘low on power, sorry’.
However, Dingman dismissed the claims, saying that the student’s phone was not on low battery.
“What we have been told is the phone did not die due to battery capacity,” he said.
Dingman claims he ‘wasn’t even at five percent, which some kids run around on and frustrates us as parents’.
.webp)
X/@MNPDNashville
Police spokesperson Don Aaron has also said there is no evidence of foul play.
“To those who are saying that they believe he could have been in distress, that somebody could have been after him as he walked onto Gay Street, well, as you see in the video, he’s walking by himself on the river side and speaks to a police officer as the officer is looking at a vehicle that had been broken into,” he said.
The bar he was kicked out of, 32 Bridge, is owned by country artist Luke Bryan, who later sent his thoughts and prayers to the student.
32 Bridge’s statement read: “We proactively provided detailed information quickly after his visit to our business.
“This included all security camera footage, photos of Riley, transaction records and staff accounts.
“During Riley’s visit, our records show he purchased and was served one alcoholic drink and two waters.”
The man who had his lifelong first-class plane ticket taken off of him for apparent rule-breaking is thought to have taken more than 10,000 flights in the 25 years he had the £190,000 perk.
It was way back in 1987 that Steven Rothstein paid $250,000 (£190,000) for the AAirpass, sold by American Airlines, giving the stockbroker the perk of flying first class every time he booked a ticket with them.
Rothstein also paid $150,000 (£115,000) for a companion pass, giving him the ability to fly with a guest alongside him.
The pass was meant to give Rothstein free first class flights until he died, but that all changed when American Airlines took the AAirpass off of him, saying he had broken the rules that came with it.
Rothstein’s ticket was revoked (Caroline Rothstein)
How did Rothstein lose his American Airlines’ AAirpass?
Rothstein had his AAirpass for more than 20 years until it was taken off of him in 2008.
American Airlines went one step further and actually launched legal action against him.
But Rothstein said he had only been given one rule when he bought the ticket 20 years prior and that was that he couldn’t let anybody else use the pass.
He told the Guardian: “When I bought the AAirpass, in no uncertain terms, they told me that there was only one rule: I couldn’t give anybody the AAirpass. And those were the days before they took identification from passengers.”
Rothstein said he always stuck to the rule, even when a colleague offered him $5,000 a week to use the pass.
American Airlines explained that Rothstein had made ‘speculative bookings’ for non-existent passengers under names including ‘Bag Rothstein’ and ‘Steven Rothstein Jr’.
Rothstein launched a counter claim, accusing American Airlines of breaking its deal to offer it for life, with the two parties settling outside of court.
American Airlines revoked his pass (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The flights Steven Rothstein took using his AAirpass
Reports online show that Rothstein took more than 10,000 flights in total using his AAirpass.
Of these, more trips were taken to New York City than anywhere else with 1,000 flights to his name.
Following this, 500 flights were taken to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and London each.
A further 120 flights went to Tokyo, with 80 flights to both Paris and Sydney.
Hong Kong was the destination of choice for a further 50 flights.
Other destinations that Rothstein went to were Nova Scotia, Maine, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Mexico City, Acapulco, Wichita Falls, and Fort Lauderdale.
In total, Rothstein was reported to have cost American Airlines more than $21 million in first class fares, which equates to roughly £16 million.
Featured Image Credit: Caroline Rothstein / COOPER NEILL/AFP via Getty Images
.png)
A passenger on an Alaska Airlines flight has told how she feared for her life and thought it was her ‘final moments’ when part of the plane was ripped off while thousands of feet in the air.
Emma Vu was one of the 177 passengers and crew onboard the Boeing 737 Max 9 on Friday evening when part of its fuselage and a window were blown out shortly after take off.
In scenes reminiscent of an air disaster film, oxygen masks were deployed as the cabin rapidly depressurised due to the huge gaping hole which had appeared in the side of the plane.
Take a look here:
Flight 1282 was heading to Ontario, California and had climbed to more than 16,000ft (4,876m) after departing from Portland, Oregon, just after 5.00pm local time yesterday (5 January), when chaos erupted.
Current reports claim that a deactivated emergency door – now used as a regular cabin window – was suddenly torn off, with passengers’ belongings being sucked out into the starry night sky which had become completely visible to travellers.
In a TikTok post, Emma detailed her ordeal onboard the Alaska Airlines flight and shared the terrifying texts she sent to her loved ones as she feared the mid-air incident would be fatal.
She explained she had been asleep when she suddenly ‘felt the entire plane drop’ as the fuselage and cabin window disappeared and understandably became ‘so scared’.
“The masks dropped, and people are screaming,” she said in the clip, while showing social media users a teary-eyed selfie she had taken while frantically texting her family.
TikTok/@shwimshady
One chilling message read: “The masks r down; I am so scared right now; Please pray for me; Please I don’t want to die.”
Emma claimed that she watched on helplessly as a toddler’s shirt ‘flew off’ and a phone ‘flew out of the window’ due to the drastic drop in pressure inside the cabin.
She continued: “I am so grateful for the ladies sat next to me. They were so sweet at calming me down, and the flight attendants were giving oxygen tanks to those who needed it more.
“But I was freaking out because my bag wouldn’t inflate – and that’s literally what they tell you in the safety thing, like don’t worry you’re still getting air flow… when you’re in fight or flight you’re not thinking about that.
“It was just so scary, no one knew what was happening, the pilot came on to tell everyone to put your mask on before you help others – literally word for word what they tell you in the safety training.”
KPTV
Thankfully, the ‘surreal’ experience came to an end a short time later as the Boeing 737 Max 9 made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport around 20 minutes after initially taking off and incredibly, no injuries were reported.
Alaska Airlines said all 177 people onboard had ‘landed safely’ and that it was now ‘working to gather more information’.
Emma said that despite the great efforts of cabin crew, she had been disappointed by Alaska Airlines’ response.
TikTok/@shwimshady
She claimed she was offered a reimbursed flight for the following day with more leg room, drinks and snacks – but she felt it was ‘really not enough’.
However, she hopped on her rescheduled flight to California today happily as she feels ‘it really cannot happen twice’.
An investigation has now been launched to get to the bottom of how the plane effectively fell apart in mid-air, as the Boeing 737 Max 9 was reported to have only just been constructed and recently put into service.
Alaska Airlines announced it was grounding its entire fleet of Max-9 aircraft following the dramatic incident.
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@shwimshady/KPTV
I’m bookmarking this for future reference. Such a helpful article, thanks for posting! This article is a treasure trove of information! Your perspective on this topic is refreshing! I’m definitely going to share this with my friends. This article is a treasure trove of information! Your perspective on this topic is refreshing! Such a helpful article, thanks for posting! Excellent post with lots of actionable advice!