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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 2018)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2018 Friendly tone belied acts of Seattle plane thief Crashed on Ketron Island By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SEATTLE — He cracked jokes, complimented the pro- fessional demeanor of an air traffic controller and apolo- gized for making a fuss. But the friendly tone of a 29-year-old airport worker who stole a commercial plane Friday night, performing acro- batic stunts before the fatal plunge into a thick island forest, belied his desperate actions. “I think I’m going to try to do a barrel roll, and if that goes good I’ll go nose down and call it a night,” Richard Russell said from the cock- pit, according to a recording of his conversation with the controller. The Pierce County Med- ical Examiner’s Office con- firmed Sunday that Russell had died in the fiery wreck- age, but whether the crash was deliberate or accidental was one of several topics remain- ing for investigators. Others include how, nearly 17 years after the 9/11 attack, someone can simply take a passenger plane from a major U.S. airport without authorization. Two F-15C aircraft were scrambled from Portland and pursued the plane but author- ities say they didn’t fire on it before it crashed. The bizarre incident points to one of the biggest poten- tial 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 for- mer FBI agent and transpor- tation security expert, told the AP. “Here we have an employee who was vetted to the level to have access to the aircraft and had a skill set pro- ficient enough to take off with that plane.” Richard Russell/YouTube Richard Russell, an airline ground agent, stole an empty commercial airplane on Friday. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren A stolen Horizon Air turboprop plane flying over Eatonville, Wash., on Friday. Smoke and an orange glow are seen on Ketron Island in Washington state early Saturday after a plane crash Fri- day night. The Seattle FBI office said Sunday that it had recovered the flight data recorder and components of the cockpit voice recorder from the Hori- zon plane. The National Trans- portation Safety Board is now processing the equipment. The FBI also said it found human remains among the wreckage. Tragic as Russell’s death was, he could have inflicted vastly more damage had he been so inclined. Potential targets included tens of thou- sands of fans assembling at Safeco Field, about 12 miles away, for a sold-out Pearl Jam concert just as he took off. “Last night’s event is going to push us to learn what we can from this tragedy so that we can ensure this does not troller: “You are very calm, collect, poised,” he said. He said flying was a “blast” and that he didn’t need much help: “I’ve played some video games before.” “You think if I land this successfully Alaska will give me a job as a pilot?” he joked. He also told the controller he “wasn’t really planning on landing” the aircraft, and he described himself as “just a broken guy.” Authorities sent fighter jets to escort him, and the control- ler repeatedly tried to direct him to runways. But the plane slammed into tiny Ketron Island, a sparsely populated island southwest of Tacoma. Russell went by “Beebo” on social media. On his Face- book page, which had limited Courtney Junka happen again at Alaska Air Group or at any other airline,” Brad Tilden, CEO of Alaska Airlines, told a news confer- ence Saturday. The plane was a Bombar- dier Q400, a turboprop that seats 76 people, owned by Horizon Air, part of Alaska Airlines. It had been parked at a cargo and maintenance area for the night after arriving from Victoria, British Colum- bia, earlier in the day. Russell, a 3½-year Horizon employee, worked as a ground service agent. His responsi- bilities included towing and pushing aircraft for takeoff and gate approach, de-icing them, and handling baggage. Authorities said he used a tractor to rotate the plane 180 degrees, positioning it so that After 17 days and 1,000 miles, a mother orca’s ‘tour of grief’ is over By JENNY GATHRIGHT National Public Radio After carrying her deceased baby for at least 17 days and 1,000 miles, an orca mother has shown signs of returning to normal. She was seen Saturday with fellow members of her pod, chasing a school of salmon. She is no longer carrying her baby and she looks healthy. “Her tour of grief is now over and her behavior is remarkably frisky,” according to a state- ment on the Center for Whale Research’s website. Researchers commonly refer to the mother orca as J-35. She’s also known as Tahlequah, a name she was given as part of the adopt a whale program at The Whale Museum on Wash- ington’s San Juan Island. Her recovery is import- ant — not just for her own health, but for the health of the rest of her pod. National Pub- lic Radio’s Colin Dwyer previ- ously reported that “given the fact that orcas move in matri- lineal groups, dependent on mothers and grandmothers,” Tahlequah’s death would put her adult son and others in danger. Not a single orca born in the past three years has been known to survive, according to the Center for Whale Research. That’s why the fact that Tahle- quah recently gave birth was so exciting, if only for a brief moment. Her calf died just 30 minutes after it was first spot- ted by a whale watch operator on July 24. The Center for Whale Research keeps track of every single known orca (known more formally as the southern resident killer whale), and as of December 2017, the popu- lation contains just 76 whales. According to NPR’s Dwyer, the population of south- ern resident killer whales has decreased by about a quarter in the past 20 years, largely because their food source, the Chinook salmon, has also seen a dramatic population decline. Jenny Atkinson, executive director of The Whale Museum, told “Here & Now’s” Jer- emy Hobson that Tahlequah’s grieving period was unusually long. Typically, Atkinson said, researchers have seen mothers carry stillborn calves for “a day or so.” But Tahlequah’s baby was not stillborn. “She carried this for 17 months before it was born,” Atkinson said. “And we know that it swam by her side … so there is a part of me that believes that the grief could be much deeper because they had bonded.” Atkinson said it made sense that Tahlequah’s grief gener- ated a global response. “Orcas … are charismatic mega- fauna,” she said. “You’re going to feel that pain of grief — particularly if you’ve gone through grief in your own life.” WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Fre e Est Fast ima tes Call me ti Any Jeff Hale Painting • • • • Residential Commercial Cedar Roof Treatments Exterior Repaint Specialist Over 25 years local experience 503-440-2169 Jeff Hale, Contractor LICENSED BONDED INSURED CCB#179131 Starting August 16th Thru August 19th 2018, Cross Stitchers from all over the world will descend on a small Oregon town, Seaside, for the 3rd Annual Heaven and Earth Designs Convention, or HAEDcon, as it’s known in the Cross Stitching world. A Stitching Convention for cross stitching you say? Well things have changed. Gone are the days of cute teddy bears and flowers. HAEDCon is a convention sponsored by the locally owned company, Heaven and Earth Designs. Attendees come to see finished stitched pieces, socialize, and shop! Cross stitchers from all over the world—Iceland, Australia, the United Kingdom—are just days away from meeting new friends, meeting old friends, and meeting the artists behind the work they stitch. Everyone has great ideas about spending four days stitching, but from past experience the amount of talking, laughter, ‘Stitchtalk’, and adding to one’s stash is a must for any attendee. A loyal following quickly came to Michele and Bob Sayetta, who packed up six years ago and moved from Minnesota to a small coastal town in Oregon. Starting in 2002, the Husband and Wife team changed how people viewed cross stitch. They began by creating the most stunning hand dyed fabric to be used for stitching. Michele’s talent for color came naturally to the Californian-born computer programmer. This was the beginning of Heaven and Earth Designs. They then moved onto converting famous artwork into cross stitch charts by artists all over the world. Adding to these works of art, Michele and Bob also hand craft many coveted stitching tools. As well, they also feature beautiful linens and cloths from well-known manufacturers such as ZWEIGART, as well as stitching floss from DMC, direct from France. Heaven and Earth Designs has a small dedicated team that send out hundreds of the now famous “purple package” to fulfill orders that range from a chart to fabric, floss and tools. The Heaven and Earth Designs Convention also features artists whose stunning pieces have been transformed into cross stitching charts. Returning for her third year, artist Aimee Stewart says, “If a unicorn wearing roller skates and juggling polka dot lemurs streaked by just now singing the Macarena at the top of its lungs... it STILL wouldn’t be as fun as HAEDCon!” Also joining Aimee this year are returning artists - Hannah Lynn Disney, Rob and Jean Carlos, Jeff Haynie, and, for the first time, we welcome artists Randal Spangler and Joan Marie. Stitchers are enthusiastic to arrive, with one stitcher saying they, “Feel like they are attending the ‘Oscars’ of Cross Stitching. The Countdown to HAEDcon is on. Heaven and Earth Designs Convention 16 - 19th August 2018 • Seaside Convention Center Visitors Welcome • Day Passes for Artists and Product Once registration is over for registered customers entrance will only be permitted for walk ins by calling 503-440-0924 to be met at the front desk www.heavenandearthdesigns.com he could taxi toward a run- way. They said it’s not clear whether he had ever taken flight lessons or used flight simulators, or where he gained the skills to take off. The plane didn’t require a key, but it did require buttons and switches to be activated in a particular order. His 75-minute flight during the golden twilight took him south and west, toward the Olympic Mountains. As a flight controller tried to per- suade him to land, he won- dered aloud about whether he had enough fuel to make it to the Olympics, talked of the beautiful view, and said he had a lot of people who cared about him, apologizing for what he was doing. He complimented the con- public access, he said he was from Wasilla, Alaska; lived in Sumner, Washington; and was married in 2012. In a humorous YouTube video he posted last year, he talked about his job and included videos and photos of his travels. “I lift a lot of bags. Like a lot of bags. So many bags,” he said. Russell’s family said in a statement that they were stunned and heartbroken. They said it’s clear Russell didn’t intend to harm anyone, and “he was right in saying that there are so many people who loved him.” Associated Press reporters Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington, and Keith Ridler in Boise, Idaho, contributed.
