PORTLAND, Ore. — When 29-year-old ramp worker Richard Russell stole a passenger plane and took off from Seattle Friday evening, professional pilots like my older brother Bill Dooris quickly focused on what was happening.
“Sad, number one, sad for the family and the employees and pilots of Horizon and Alaska,” he said Monday.
Bill has logged 4,000 hours flying jets, first A-6's and then F-18's in the Navy. He recently flew for Horizon leaving just this last June for another job. And he flew a Bombardier Q400, the same turboprop model that was stolen, 11 times.
He believes the ramp worker had training.
“Remarkable feat of aviation skill. And I do not see a way he could have done that without flight training, twin engine airplane of some sort,” he said.
Part of my brother's reasoning involves the way Russell flew the stolen plane upside down and through barrel rolls.
“And then to perform some of the maneuvers that he did and talk on the radio at the same time led me to believe that he has to have had some training,” said Bill.
“When you do maneuvers – like we do in fighters all the time — barrel rolls, fly inverted, you’re under a lot of G. That does a weird thing to your brain if you are not used to it,” he added.
Jim Hummel, from Battle Ground, Wash., is another retired airline pilot who watched closely.
“Obviously the guy had some skill to get it off the ground,” he said.
Hummel thinks its possible Russell learned those skills through computer simulators. He wonders why more was not done to keep the plane from taking off.
“They might have attempted an interception on the ground with vehicles, not necessarily personnel but vehicles of some sort to stop, to stop the movement of the airplane,” he said.
But that did not happen.
What did happen, Portland based F-15 fighter jets screamed up to Seattle on full after burner arriving in just minutes, likely with weapons ready and orders to shoot down the jet under certain circumstances. And then shadowed the stolen jet and waited patiently.
It’s something my former Navy pilot brother said shows their discipline.
“There’s rules of engagement which allow a shoot down only from the very highest authorities. And so, for them to monitoring that and just stay where they were, ready to take action if required, was remarkable. It’s exactly what you expect from a professional military,” he said.