Tragedy Aboard A Q400 In Seattle
a plane similar to the one used in Friday evening's heiest in Seattle, a Q400 "Dash 8"
This morning I woke up to several notifications on my phone from some of my old airline employee coworkers asking me if I had been listening real-time to the incident going on in Seattle, while others sending me links of the situation itself. Glancing briefly only at headlines about someone stealing an airplane in Seattle before leaving my house, while I drove into work I thought to myself what possible could be meant by these headlines.
The Media has no clue...
Excuse my bluntness here, but I’m simply not a fan of mainstream media reporting, I don’t really ever think they ever accurately report on aviation stories, and really never know what they’re actually talking about. The problem is compiled by the general public not taking the time to understand the facts and jumping to absurd conclusions that are often time unrealistic and frankly ridiculous.
Nonetheless, I attempted to give the media the benefit of the doubt and arrived at work and immediately turned on the news to see what was being reported. Within the first few minutes I remembered why I don’t bother to watch the news, they’re complete morons. I listened for about two minutes while they interviewed their “aviation expert” and proceeded to ask them “if the airport was open again?”
Let’s get down to the point – I’m sick of bogus news reports and bad assumptions about aviation incidents. As a current professional in the industry, and a former airline employee, here’s my analysis and opinion on what happened, and where we go next. Take it for what it’s worth.
What we know...
It’s been confirmed at this point that an airline employee in Seattle obtained control of an aircraft, departed from the Seattle airport unauthorized, and was doing some air stunts in the vicinity of the city. Air Traffic Controllers out of Seattle attempted to talk the pilot down to a safe landing, but he eventually ditched the plane, taking his own life.
What this story ISN’T about...
Earlier I shared a post on social media that summed up the situation very well, this is a sad story of someone who had a mental breakdown and used resources they had available to them (an airplane and airport access) to take their life. This is not a problem with airport security; it is not a platform for gun control.
I watched the press conference that Alaska and Horizon held regarding this incident. Most of the press was concerned about airport security and why an airline employee would have access to an airplane on the ramp at an airport, and what security measures were in place.
In the press conference, both CEOs of Horizon and Alaska indicate that the employee was a ground service agent – meaning he was responsible for the loading and unloading of airplanes. He was also a member of the “Tow Team” – a specialty unit of employees that are trained to relocate aircraft under “tow” (using a pushback tractor unit) from gate to gate, remote parking locations to gates, or from gates to maintenance ramps or hangars.
What this means is that the employee was authorized and credentialed to be in and of the vicinity of the aircraft, on ramps, pads, and taxiways, while under tow, and performing his official duties. I REPEAT: there was NO SECURITY BREACH. Even had the employee traversed through TSA security (working employees at airports with a need for ramp/secured area access typically bypass security screening) – had it been required for working ramp employees, it wouldn’t have mattered, as it doesn’t appear he had any prohibited items with him, nor would they have been needed do pull of this heist.
The employee was undoubtedly authorized to be onboard the aircraft. Since was a member of the tow team, as the CEO’s have indicated in their press conference, he was almost certainly allowed to touch buttons, switches, and flight controls when operating as a member of the “Tow Team.” When I worked on “the tow team” while employed for the airlines – I had a book of checklists I used that provided instructions on starting the aircraft in preparation for relocating the aircraft on the ground. I can only venture to assume that this agent had something similar for the aircrafts he regularly worked on. Relocating aircraft is a necessity for the operations of the airline, especially at its busy hub airports, like Seattle, for countless reasons.
CNN's David Soucie (an “aviation expert”) states, “There is protocol to not allow anyone singularly to get onboard an aircraft.” This is 100% bogus and false information, I’d like to know what his source is. As a former airline employee, I had access to hundreds of aircraft at any given point in time, solo and unescorted, and I didn’t need to take a buddy with me for my “badge access” to work on any of the hundreds of doors I was credentialed and authorized to open, alone.
The Telegraph is posting equally as stupid and uneducated comments in their article, stating “It has raised fundamental questions about airline security at America’s major airports after the mechanic was able to board the plane…” Right, because ground service agents (not mechanics, like it matters) in UK airports aren’t allowed to touch or board airplanes in order to service them? Right, okay. Again, the agent was operating in an area of the airport where he was authorized and credentialed to do so.
Again, the employee was background-checked, security-badged, and authorized to be in the “secure area” of the airport. He was not in an area he wasn’t authorized to be in, and he did not need a “buddy” in order to board the airplane as Soucie of CNN seems to think (despite being some world-accredited aviation expert…). I simply cannot fathom how people think this was a security-related issue at the Seattle airport.
The aircraft was parked at a remote located maintenance ramp, not a passenger gate (though it’s largely irrelevant to the “security” discussion). It does not appear the man attempted to “fool” air traffic controllers in an attempt to taxi the plane to the runway (although this may have delayed the response of the F15s that eventually chased him down). There are no magical physical barriers between ramp areas where airplanes are parked and runways where airplanes take off from, just a goodwill system of pilots obtaining the proper clearance and permission from ATC. There is no reason this needs to change. This is likely an isolated incident and we probably won’t see anything similar happen for a very long time, if ever.
What this is REALLY about...
As I mentioned earlier, I shared a post that summed up my thoughts on the matter. This was heartbreaking story about a man who had a mental breakdown and used the resources he had available to him to take his own life.
For just a moment, think about your current place of employment, the access or credentials you’ve been granted, and build a hypothetical situation up where you have a mental break and use the resources available to you at your current job, given your current access, to cause a detrimental situation to either yourself or others. I bet it’s more possible than you may think. This ground service agent was trusted by his employer (and numerous other agencies) to act responsibility with the access and equipment he had access to, and unfortunately, due to a mental illness, that trust was broken.
I listened to parts of the Air Traffic Control recordings, as much as I could anyhow. My heart broke when I heard the young man acknowledge that if he did successfully land, he’d be jailed for life, and later saying how he was loved by many and they’d be disappointed to hear that he did this.
There was a comment made by the individual operating the airplane indicating he was perhaps unhappy with the wage he was being paid, saying something about how perhaps the higher ups would take notice to wages after this incident. Perhaps this was a last-chance jab at the company. He made other comments about how perhaps Alaska (the mainline carrier Horizon does its flying for) would hire him as a pilot. Perhaps he had tried and failed as a pilot, or tried to get other jobs with the mainline company but been rejected for whatever reason. Perhaps this led to his mental health situation, but unfortunately, we will never know.
I finally had to turn off the recordings I was listening to when I heard him say, “I guess I just have a few screws loose.” It’s truly nothing short of devastating when someone decides to take their own life, my heart and condolences go out to this individuals family, friends, and former coworkers. While this incident could’ve been far worse, and more devastating, I’m glad it wasn’t, but I’m still saddened and heartbroken by this story.
I hope this incident draws more attention to the real issue at hand – mental health and suicide prevention, not airport security. Rest in peace, Rich.
published... August 12, 2018