How'd he get that plane airborne?

[Saboburns]

How did the engines get fired, did somebody leave a spare key under the visor? How did the guy taxi around dozens of jumbo jets without any guidance, being he never did it before?

How did he jump line to get on end of runway, He had to swerve around more than just a couple of ahead of him? How the hell did he takeoff, how the hell does he get that plane in the air?

I got a huge problem regarding a virgin pilot taking a huge twin engine commercial airliner taxiing around and getting it airborne NEVER HAVING DONE IT BEFORE, EVER.

But most of all, WHERE IS THE AIRPORT SECURITY VIDEO SHOWING THESE THINGS??

Listen I may be able to keep a plane airborne for ten minutes if somebody handed over to me at 8,000 feet. But the chances of jumping the line, liking up for take off and getting that plane airborne?? No way.

You gotta be shittng me.

[lapfog_1]

1. The story goes that he had many hours of training in a flight simulator

but yeah... that still seems a bit thin.

[fescuerescue]

7. airline quality flight sims are absolutely amazing.

They are good enough to train pilots on new aircraft they've never flown before, and become qualified enough to take command of a real one, without ever flying right seat in a real one.

[lapfog_1]

11. yes, but it was implied in the story I read online that this was more "flightsim"

at home... not the flight simulators the airlines use (with cockpit mock ups etc)

I've been in this one (once)...

[lpbk2713]

14. I see Pac Man.

I kid. I kid.

[Major Nikon]

20. I've got about 450 hours in Class D simulators

They are so good you sometimes forget you aren't in the real thing. The cockpits are identical and when you are in the clouds you can't see anything but white anyway. You can even do barrel rolls in them.

[drray23]

2. Airplane mechanics so he probably knew about how to start the engines and such.

He also had flight simulator training.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

26. You don't need a key to start a turbine engine. You just need to know which buttons to push.

Winding around the taxiways to get to the main runways wouldn't be hard (there are airport maps), and you don't have to take off from the end of the runway in that type of airplane if the runway is long enough, which they would be at SeaTac. You also don't have to use a runway to take off -- for this size aircraft, a long taxiway would serve just fine.

Flying an airplane isn't that difficult: You pull back on the controls and you go up. You pull further back and you go down. The rest is a matter of degree -- each aircraft has its own handling characteristics and mechanical systems.

When I was a navigator in the Air Force Reserves one of the instructor pilots asked me if I'd like to try to land the KC-135 (basically a Boeing 707) we flew. Hell yes!!! He didn't know I was a private pilot, but the biggest thing I had flown was a single engine Cessna 182. An airplane is an airplane, however, and I had been watching the pilots make many landings. I hopped in the seat, flew a perfect pattern and final approach, and greased the landing. When I turned to thank him, his eyes were like saucers. He had expected he would have to jump in to save the day, and here was this navigator who just landed better than half the pilots in the squadron. Of course, the weather was perfect, there was no wind, no other traffic, etc. If you threw any of those into the mix the result might have been different.

My point is, flying is not easy, but it is simple.

Regarding simulators: They are so sophisticated that the first real flight an airline pilot has in a new airplane type often is with paying passengers in the back. Think about that the next time you buckle up, and I bet you actually pay attention to the safety briefing!

If he had had access to a Horizon Air flight simulator -- even for a few hours -- the pilot could have learned enough to start the engines, take off and fly. Landing would have taken a little more work, however, which is consistent with what he was telling ATC.

Where this individual had a problem was in the details. For example, he was talking about how the fuel flow was faster than he'd expected; this might happen because he hadn't changed the propeller pitch from take-off to cruise setting. Also he was flying low the entire flight, and that eats up a lot more fuel than at altitude. There might have been adjustments he needed to make to transfer fuel between tanks that he wasn't making. He also didn't know how to control pressurization, although that shouldn't have been a factor as long as he was below 10,000 feet.

I feel sad for the pilot, his wife and his friends. While his ordeal may have had a tragic end, the fact that his communications with ATC were so public and relatable may add credence to the need we have for better mental health care. So maybe some good will come from his pain.

[PearliePoo2]

3. And he did aerobatics too! WTF?

Can you learn this stuff on-line? Video games? It will probably all come out but in the meantime, what the hell?

[fescuerescue]

8. If you don't care about crashing.

Absolutely.

hard right/left yoke and you'll do barrel rolls.

I'm sure it's amazingly fun way to finish out your last 2 minutes on earth.

[PearliePoo2]

13. Did he do barrel rolls or a loop or both?

Is that bird even built for that stress? Holy shit!

[sailfla]

4. I was a flight instructor and my mechanic

knew how to fly. This guy knew the procedures and how get around them. and he was really sick..sad

[Old Vet]

16. My best friend was a mechanic(fixed wing) Cessna two seaters...........

After routine work he would invite me to fly from Stewart Airport and follow the Hudson down to the statue of liberty and return. We did this all the time.

[JI7]

5. it's not that hard to believe since he had security clearance to access places

[fescuerescue]

6. Airliners don't have keys

It's really not that hard. If the plane is sitting in a place where it doesn't need a push back.

Just fire up the engines and start "driving". No doubt all the other aircraft were immediately told to stop and unless the airport was busy, pretty easy to drive around them. If has ever taken a lesson in Cessna, he had all he needs to taxi. Add in some youtube and Microsoft flight sim and he has what he needed.

Precision flying is HARD and takes a long time to get right and qualified.

Slop flying? Pretty easy especially if you plan to crash anyway. push the throttles forward and pull up when it feels "fast" enough.

[nolabear]

12. He actually did a pushback!

He was ground maintenance and trained to drive the tractors. He moved it before he boarded it.

Hard to imagine his thought processes. My retired shrink side wonders about mania because he sounded weirdly euphoric. But that’s pure speculation. Poor guy. I know he did a dreadful thing but I’m convinced something was going on that affected his thought processes.

[nolabear]

9. Okay, here's what we know. Btw I'm in Seattle.

The plane was in a cargo area awaiting maintenance. He was part of maintenance crew and had had access to them many times. No idea how he figured out how to take off but he apparently knew sequence to start engines. He was also part of the crew that drove tractors to position planes. Remarkably, he did that, and moved it prior to boarding.

As soon as ACT realized he was there, they talked to him on ground frequency. They never left ground frequency, which is why so many people could follow it real time. ACT quickly moved every other plane out of his path and out of danger. They also called whomever it is that gets F-15s into the air and two were immediately dispatched from Portland and literally were there in minutes.

He said he’d played video games, but who on earth knows. It’s certainly crazy but it’s a prop plane and less complex than jets but, yeah, it’s crazy.

My son works at SeaTac and I haven’t had the chance to ask him what it’s like today (he’s only there on Saturdays) but I’m curious. I know security for employees is rigorous. “Rich”, the guy who took the plane, had been there for three years.

It’s tragic and surreal but I don’t think anything nefarious was going on. I’m curious about whether he was having a manic episode, considering how he sounded, but that’s my shrink side conjecturing. No more.

[A HERETIC I AM]

23. Actually, a turboprop has a little more going on than a normal jet aircraft.

Typical Turboprop controls;



In addition to throttle, you have a set of "Condition" levers and "Prop" levers. Those control things like pitch, as those type propeller blades are not fixed, but variable pitch and can be reversed.

Typical jet airliner controls;



Just throttles, which when put into a specific position controls reverse thrust.

I don't think it surprises any pilot, A&P mechanic or aviation enthusiast (of which I count myself) that this guy, with the experience he had, would have been easily able to fire it up, taxi and take off with little or no formal flight training.

[nolabear]

24. They're discussing that on local news right now.

Thanks for the info. I just posted a short article and video he made. It’s such a mystery when this warm, engaging, very nice sounding man does something like this. My therapist eats perk up and I wonder about mania of some kind. We may never know though.

[NutmegYankee]

10. It's a twin engine turboprop - it wasn't huge.

Those planes have great flight characteristics.

[Turbineguy]

15. I "flew" an A-6 Intruder in a simulator.

Getting off the ground is easy.

[Brother Buzz]

17. That's exactly what John Nance, aviation expert dude, was saying

And emphasized that LANDING is the problem!

[Turbineguy]

21. The real pilot

I was with, then took me for a simulated aircraft carrier landing. That was exciting!

[Brother Buzz]

25. They say the BEST aircraft carrier landing is nothing but an exquisitely controlled crash landing

[SeattleVet]

18. A barrel roll is a relatively easy 1G maneuver.

The plane never knew that it was going over. He almost hit the water when he did it, since he failed to maintain a correct attitude which let his altitude drastically fall off. He really lucked out and was able to pull it back up before hitting Puget Sound, though, in retrospect, that might have produced a much better alternative end to his flight adventure.

No key is required for most planes of this size. Just go through the correct startup sequence and off you go. From looking at his FB profile and a video he posted a while back it appears that he was a ramp worker...lots of baggage handling, loading and unloading, and not an airline mechanic as had been perviously reported.)

The plane was a fairly common model, so a lot of documentation, instructions, and checklists would have been very readily available.

Taking off is a pretty straightforward operation. Once you get up to a certain speed the airplane will pretty much be going up. Safely getting it back on the ground entails a lot more practice. When I was taking lessons the instructor kept her hands and feet *very* close to the controls for probably the first 5 or 10 times she had me line up and perform my 'controlled crash' onto the runway. After a few hours of instruction she relaxed and sat back and usually just gave helpful criticism and encouragement as I went through the process. Several lessons were purely touch-and-go, where we landed and immediately took off again, went around through the pattern and did it again. Eventually everything just fell into place and muscle memory and training worked together and the landings got a lot smoother (that's when she stopped calling me Captain Kangaroo', for all the bouncing I did on the first several attempts at getting that collection of airplane parts flying in close formation back onto the ground).

[EX500rider]

27. Looked more like he did a Split-S to me rather then a barrel roll.

[Saboburns]

19. DUDE WAS NOT A MECHANIC

That's a BIG deal. I can see a mechanic having some starting and taxiing experience.

But this guy was a baggage handler, not mechanic

[lunasun]

22. Maybe he just let Jesus take the controls and it worked... he was evangelical

Met his wife at a school chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ, an evangelical Christian organization

He did not fear death
On Facebook, his favorite quotes were religious in nature, including, “God IS Love” and “No Guilt in Life, No Fear in Death, this is the Power of Christ in Me,”

He could have killed people and stole a plane . I don't see him as as folk hero or amazing skills for a novice like many are remembering him as. I assume he was on a suicide run , that is sad and maybe planned with simulation training ahead of the flight

[Snackshack]

28. This whole story is

Pretty incredible and sad if not or the video of the guy cruising along with an F15 at his six and images of crash site I would be skeptical also. I read he was a mechanic and worked the ramp so it is not to unbelievable to think he pulled it off. I worked ramp for a longtime (graveyard shift) spent a lot of time in the hanger sim and learned how to start / taxi / fly Dash 8 / 737-300 / 757-200 it is really not that hard...if you don’t care about regulations or procedures.