A MECHANIC stole a plane from Seattle airport and joked with air traffic controllers before crashing into an island.
The married airport employee, 29, “hijacked” the Alaska Airlines plane before performing stunts in the sky as he was tailed by fighter jets today.
Harrowing audio revealed the pilot joking with the controllers who begged him to land the 76-seater plane before it nosedived and burst into a fireball 25 miles away.
At one point, he said: “Hey do you think if I land this successfully Alaska will give me a job as a pilot?”
Astonishing video showed the Horizon Air Q400 doing large loops and other dangerous manoeuvres.
In the chilling recording, he revealed he was a “broken man” and apologised to the air traffic controller.
He said: “I hope this doesn’t ruin your day.”
The mechanic, referred to as “Rich”, said that he wanted to do “a barrel roll, and if that goes good…nose down and call it a night”.
He then said: “I wouldn’t know how to land – I wasn’t really planning on landing it.”
The “suicidal” man, who dreamed of joining the military, then said that he had thrown up and that he felt “dizzy”.
He added: “I’m sorry about this, I hope it doesn’t ruin your day […].
“Man, the sights went by so fast. I was thinking, like, I’m going to have this moment of serenity, take in all the sights.
“There’s a lot of pretty stuff, but they’re pretty in a different context.”
The married mechanic – who has not been named – crashed on Ketron Island, 30 miles south west of Seattle, at 8pm local time.
He and his wife, who he met in 2010, ran a bakery until it closed in 2015.
Read more:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6991591/seattle-plane-hijacker-reveals-why-stole-jet-final-call-before-crash/
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