SEATAC, Wash. — Newly obtained video from the 2018 heist of a Horizon Airlines plane at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport shows how air traffic controllers and pilots scrambled during the emergency to keep other planes in the area safe.
It's been nearly four years since 28-year-old Richard "Bebo" Russell, a Horizon Ground service agent with no pilot experience, successfully stole the plane and flew it around Puget Sound before crashing to his death.
New video shows several angles of how Russell managed to get the plane off the ground during what was supposed to be a regular shift at the airport.
It was August 10, 2018. Russell checked into work at Sea-Tac Airport at 2:36 p.m. Video shows him showing his badge to TSA and going through the employee security checkpoint. He's wearing a black T-shirt with the words "The Sky's No Limit" printed on it. He grabs his backpack and continues.
Five hours go by, according to an FBI report. It's unclear what he was doing for this time.
Around 7:15 p.m. he arrived with a tow vehicle at the cargo area at the far north end of Sea-Tac known as Cargo 1. Air traffic control started to sense something was not right when trying to make contact.
Video shows Russell alone, towing the plane out. He releases the plane from the tow-vehicle he's driving and the plane starts rolling forward. Seconds later, he starts running towards the plane. He opens the cabin door and jumps in. He pulls the door back up very quickly.
New audio released shares Russell's words from his perspective in the plane.
"Seattle ground Horizon guy. About to take off. It's gonna be crazy," he radioed in.
More pilots started to chime in to air traffic control.
"We can verify that, too. He came flying out of nowhere. We didn't even hear - we thought we've missed somebody calling to put him in front of us but he came flying out in front of us too," an unidentified pilot said.
It became clear something was definitely wrong.
"Tower, you need to call and scramble now," someone over the radio said.
While up in the air, Russell continued to radio in.
"Hey, I found myself in a predicament. I'm in the air right now. And just gonna soar around," he said.
At one point he said he was going to go check out Mount Rainier.
Down below, traffic ops requested all aircraft to get as far away from the runway as possible.
"We're just kind of freezing everybody at the moment."
An hour and 13 minutes after taking off, Russell crashed the plane on a remote Pierce County island, ending one of the most serious domestic airline-security breaches since 9/11.
The FBI ruled his death as a suicide.