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Former FBI agent: 'Greatest threat we have to aviation is the liberal Democrat loon threat'
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Charley Nutley
Aug 12, 2018, 10:37:48 PM8/12/18
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Investigators worked to find out how an airline employee stole
an empty Horizon Air turboprop plane, took off from Sea-Tac
International Airport and crashed into a small island in the
Puget Sound after being chased by military jets that were
quickly scrambled to intercept the aircraft.
The bizarre incident involving a worker who authorities said was
suicidal points to one of the biggest potential perils for
commercial air travel: airline or airport employees causing
mayhem.
“The greatest threat we have to aviation is the insider threat,”
Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and transportation security
expert, 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.”
The Friday night crash happened because the 29-year-old man was
“doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills,” the Pierce
County Sheriff’s Department said. The man, who was believed
killed, wasn’t immediately identified.
There was no connection to terrorism, Ed Troyer, a spokesman for
the sheriff’s department, said.
Video showed the Horizon Air Q400 doing large loops and other
dangerous maneuvers as the sun set on Puget Sound. There were no
passengers aboard.
Authorities initially said the man was a mechanic, but Alaska
Airlines later said he was believed to be a ground service agent
employed by Horizon. Those employees direct aircraft for takeoff
and gate approach and de-ice planes.
Southers, the aviation security expert, said the man could have
caused mass destruction. “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 said.
Sheriff’s department officials said they were working to conduct
a background investigation on the Pierce County resident.
The aircraft was stolen about 8 p.m. Alaska Airlines said it was
in a “maintenance position” and not scheduled for a passenger
flight. Horizon Air is part of Alaska Air Group and flies
shorter routes throughout the U.S. West. The Q400 is a turboprop
aircraft with 76 seats.
Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said the man “did something
foolish and may well have paid with his life.”
Air traffic control
The man could be heard on audio recordings telling air traffic
controllers that he is “just a broken guy.” An air traffic
controller called the man “Rich,” and tried to convince the man
to land the airplane.
“There is a runway just off to your right side in about a mile,”
the controller says, referring to an airfield at Joint Base
Lewis-McChord.
“Oh man. Those guys will rough me up if I try and land there,”
the man responded, later adding “This is probably jail time for
life, huh?”
Later the man said: “I’ve got a lot of people that care about
me. It’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this … Just
a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess.”
Flights out of Sea-Tac, the largest commercial airport in the
Pacific Northwest, were temporarily grounded during the drama.
The plane crashed in a heavily wooded area of thick underbrush
on the island, according to Debra Eckrote, the Western Pacific
regional chief for the National Transportation Safety Board. The
crash sparked a 2-acre wilfire.
“It is highly fragmented,” she said of the plane. “The wings are
off, the fuselage is, I think, kind of positioned upside down.”
The FBI is looking into the man’s background and trying to
determine his motive, she said. Investigators are trying to find
how he got on the plane.
“He’s ground support so they have access to aircrafts,” she said
of the man.
National response
Investigators expect they will be able to recover both the
cockpit voice recorder and the event data recorder from the
plane.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Saturday
morning that President Donald Trump is “monitoring the
situation.”
Alaska Air Group CEO Brad Tilden said in a statement early
Saturday morning that the airline was “working to find out
everything we possibly can about what happened.”
The airline was coordinating with the Federal Aviation
Administration, the FBI and the National Transportation Safety
Board, he said.
Royal King told The Seattle Times he was photographing a wedding
when he saw the low-flying turboprop being chased by two F-15s.
He said he didn’t see the crash but saw smoke.
“It was unfathomable, it was something out of a movie,” he told
the newspaper.
Gov. Jay Inslee thanked the Air National Guard from Washington
and Oregon for scrambling jets and said in a statement “there
are still a lot of unknowns surrounding tonight’s tragic
incident.“”
“The responding fighter pilots flew alongside the aircraft and
were ready to do whatever was needed to protect us, but in the
end the man flying the stolen plane crashed,” Inslee said.
http://mynorthwest.com/1076893/former-fbi-agent-greatest-threat-
we-have-to-aviation-is-the-insider-threat/
an empty Horizon Air turboprop plane, took off from Sea-Tac
International Airport and crashed into a small island in the
Puget Sound after being chased by military jets that were
quickly scrambled to intercept the aircraft.
The bizarre incident involving a worker who authorities said was
suicidal points to one of the biggest potential perils for
commercial air travel: airline or airport employees causing
mayhem.
“The greatest threat we have to aviation is the insider threat,”
Erroll Southers, a former FBI agent and transportation security
expert, 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.”
The Friday night crash happened because the 29-year-old man was
“doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills,” the Pierce
County Sheriff’s Department said. The man, who was believed
killed, wasn’t immediately identified.
There was no connection to terrorism, Ed Troyer, a spokesman for
the sheriff’s department, said.
Video showed the Horizon Air Q400 doing large loops and other
dangerous maneuvers as the sun set on Puget Sound. There were no
passengers aboard.
Authorities initially said the man was a mechanic, but Alaska
Airlines later said he was believed to be a ground service agent
employed by Horizon. Those employees direct aircraft for takeoff
and gate approach and de-ice planes.
Southers, the aviation security expert, said the man could have
caused mass destruction. “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 said.
Sheriff’s department officials said they were working to conduct
a background investigation on the Pierce County resident.
The aircraft was stolen about 8 p.m. Alaska Airlines said it was
in a “maintenance position” and not scheduled for a passenger
flight. Horizon Air is part of Alaska Air Group and flies
shorter routes throughout the U.S. West. The Q400 is a turboprop
aircraft with 76 seats.
Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said the man “did something
foolish and may well have paid with his life.”
Air traffic control
The man could be heard on audio recordings telling air traffic
controllers that he is “just a broken guy.” An air traffic
controller called the man “Rich,” and tried to convince the man
to land the airplane.
“There is a runway just off to your right side in about a mile,”
the controller says, referring to an airfield at Joint Base
Lewis-McChord.
“Oh man. Those guys will rough me up if I try and land there,”
the man responded, later adding “This is probably jail time for
life, huh?”
Later the man said: “I’ve got a lot of people that care about
me. It’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this … Just
a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess.”
Flights out of Sea-Tac, the largest commercial airport in the
Pacific Northwest, were temporarily grounded during the drama.
The plane crashed in a heavily wooded area of thick underbrush
on the island, according to Debra Eckrote, the Western Pacific
regional chief for the National Transportation Safety Board. The
crash sparked a 2-acre wilfire.
“It is highly fragmented,” she said of the plane. “The wings are
off, the fuselage is, I think, kind of positioned upside down.”
The FBI is looking into the man’s background and trying to
determine his motive, she said. Investigators are trying to find
how he got on the plane.
“He’s ground support so they have access to aircrafts,” she said
of the man.
National response
Investigators expect they will be able to recover both the
cockpit voice recorder and the event data recorder from the
plane.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Saturday
morning that President Donald Trump is “monitoring the
situation.”
Alaska Air Group CEO Brad Tilden said in a statement early
Saturday morning that the airline was “working to find out
everything we possibly can about what happened.”
The airline was coordinating with the Federal Aviation
Administration, the FBI and the National Transportation Safety
Board, he said.
Royal King told The Seattle Times he was photographing a wedding
when he saw the low-flying turboprop being chased by two F-15s.
He said he didn’t see the crash but saw smoke.
“It was unfathomable, it was something out of a movie,” he told
the newspaper.
Gov. Jay Inslee thanked the Air National Guard from Washington
and Oregon for scrambling jets and said in a statement “there
are still a lot of unknowns surrounding tonight’s tragic
incident.“”
“The responding fighter pilots flew alongside the aircraft and
were ready to do whatever was needed to protect us, but in the
end the man flying the stolen plane crashed,” Inslee said.
http://mynorthwest.com/1076893/former-fbi-agent-greatest-threat-
we-have-to-aviation-is-the-insider-threat/
573160573
Aug 15, 2018, 3:05:21 AM8/15/18
to
On 8/12/2018 10:25 PM, Charley Nutley wrote:
>
> http://mynorthwest.com/1076893/former-fbi-agent-greatest-threat-
> we-have-to-aviation-is-the-insider-threat/
>
>
>
> http://mynorthwest.com/1076893/former-fbi-agent-greatest-threat-
> we-have-to-aviation-is-the-insider-threat/
>
>
None of the Above
Aug 15, 2018, 4:54:02 AM8/15/18
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