Airport employee who stole plane then crashed into island named as family say he meant no harm

The mechanic who stole an empty plane from an airport and flew it around before crashing it has been named as Richard Russell.

The 29-year-old used a machine called a pushback tractor to manoeuvre the Alaska Airlines plane into position before taking off from Sea-Tac International Airport.

The plane was pursued by military aircraft before it crashed on tiny, sparsely-populated Ketron Island, southwest of Tacoma, Washington. He is believed to have died in the crash.

The man, who could be heard on audio recordings telling air traffic controllers that he was “just a broken guy”, has been named as Richard Russell.

An air traffic controller called him Rich, and tried to convince him to land the plane.

In a statement his family said Russell, whose nickname was Beebo, was warm, kind and gentle and described him as a faithful husband, loving son and good friend.

They said it was clear he didn’t mean to harm anyone.

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In a humorous YouTube video posted by Russell last year, he talked about his job and included videos and photos of his various travels, saying: “I lift a lot of bags. Like a lot of bags. So many bags.”

Officials had earlier said the man had been an employee of Horizon Air for three and a half years and had clearance to be among aircraft.

He did not have a pilot’s licence, and they said it was unclear how he attained the skills to do loops in the aircraft before crashing into a small island in the Puget Sound.

They said he man went through various background checks to get clearance to be in the secured area.

The incident has sparked safety concerns.

Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and transportation security expert, told The Associated Press: “The greatest threat we have to aviation is the insider threat. 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.”

He said the man could have caused mass destruction, adding: “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.”