Richard Russell

Rushie said:
I can't find his YouTube channel. Have they taken it down, or is it just that my googling is only bringing up all the reposts and news reports?
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Hmm..I can't find it anymore either...
 
Is it ideal for him to take out a new ~$30M asset in offing himself plus the impact it had on other operations for the airport and potential repercussions? No.

Will I take that over someone who goes up and shoots up a school or similar act that intentionally takes out others? Yes.
 
Meh, it’s sad he ended his life, but with horizon phasing out the dash and this obviously not “terrorism” I’m sure they’ll be happy with the insurance check, doubt they’ll change their culture of how they treat their lower paid people.

Frankly the only major issue I see is the environmental one of slamming a 40k plus pound plane into the pudget sound.
 
What a dick, f - him, I finally listened to the recording, --- oh poor me---- I really dislike this guy, if one of my friends did this I would hate them. What a waste of a perfectly good airplane and what a jerk for doing this to his wife and family.
 
PaulS said:
What a dick, f - him, I finally listened to the recording, --- oh poor me---- I really dislike this guy, if one of my friends did this I would hate them. What a waste of a perfectly good airplane and what a jerk for doing this to his wife and family.
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Glad your not my friend bruh - you sound real mean! What if I needed you in a time of need?! :eek:
 
CC268 said:
Glad your not my friend bruh - you sound real mean! What if I needed you in a time of need?! :eek:
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Lol, if mean is expecting you to act like and adult and not risk people's lives, which this guy did, then yes, I guess I'm mean. Too many man babies in this world and that's a dangerous thing.
 
CC268 said:
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PaulS said:
Lol, if mean is expecting you to act like and adult and not risk people's lives, which this guy did, then yes, I guess I'm mean. Too many man babies in this world and that's a dangerous thing.
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Can you prepare a bottle of warm milk for me? I could really use it right now.
 
How about this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fitzpatrick_(pilot)
At approximately 3 a.m. on September 30, 1956, Fitzpatrick, while intoxicated, stole a single engine plane from the Teterboro School of Aeronautics in New Jersey and flew without lights or radio before landing on St. Nicholas Avenue near 191st Street in front of a New York City bar where earlier he had been drinking and made an intoxicated barroom bet that he could travel from New Jersey to New York City in 15 minutes. The New York Timescalled the flight a "feat of aeroneutics" and a "fine landing". For his illegal flight, he was fined $100 after the plane's owner refused to press charges.[4][5]

On October 4, 1958 just before 1 a.m., Fitzpatrick, again intoxicated, stole another plane from the same airfield and landed on Amsterdam and 187th street in front of a Yeshiva University building after another bar patron disbelieved his first feat. For his second stolen flight, Judge John A. Mullen sentenced him to six months in prison stating, "Had you been properly jolted then, it’s possible this would not have occurred a second time."[3] Fitzpatick said "it's the lousy drink" that caused him to pull the stunt.[2]
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PaulS said:
What a dick, f - him, I finally listened to the recording, --- oh poor me---- I really dislike this guy, if one of my friends did this I would hate them. What a waste of a perfectly good airplane and what a jerk for doing this to his wife and family.
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I agree. He seemed like a total douche on the radio and his actions confirm it. The idea that he is becoming some sort of pop cult hero is sickening. All he really needed was a gun with a single bullet, or a bottle of pills. Instead he destroyed the property of others and potentially put the lives of others at risk. Major league dick.
 
I think people make him out to be some hero because they think what he did is some kind of glorious way to die and an amazing feat of skill. That’s just being naive to the reality of how easy it is to fly. What he did, even for a non pilot, isn’t difficult. He’s a sim gamer and probably watched YT. Even a helicopter, you could go steal the one sitting outside my door and have a pretty good chance of landing it in one piece. The actual process of getting an aircraft airborne isn’t exactly rocket surgery. “Wiggling sticks” is the easy part of professional flying.

Heck, if I were to steal an aircraft, at least I’d pick something cool like the A-4 the enlisted Marine took back in the mid 80s. A Q400? Yawn.
 
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A bunch of things just don’t add up for me.... I just don’t see if you’ve never flown anything before how you’d get that plane started, taxi’d and everything else he did in that plane, sim or not. But fine, let’s say with ZERO experience you did. Was there just a headset laying in the plane? Connected? Ok fine, maybe there was. How do u know the frequency? Is there a big giant ‘push to talk’ button? He also used several key terms that most likely a non pilot would ever use or know about. He also knew to refer to fuel in terms of pounds. Lots of other things I’m not buying about him having zero experience.

Finally, if he just wanted to off himself, fine. But the way he was talking on the radio (like a total douche) shows he wanted his 15 minutes of fame. Which he got.
 
eman1200 said:
A bunch of things just don’t add up for me.... I just don’t see if you’ve never flown anything before how you’d get that plane started, taxi’d and everything else he did in that plane, sim or not. But fine, let’s say with ZERO experience you did. Was there just a headset laying in the plane? Connected? Ok fine, maybe there was. How do u know the frequency? Is there a big giant ‘push to talk’ button? He also used several key terms that most likely a non pilot would ever use or know about. He also knew to refer to fuel in terms of pounds. Lots of other things I’m not buying about him having zero experience.

Finally, if he just wanted to off himself, fine. But the way he was talking on the radio (like a total douche) shows he wanted his 15 minutes of fame. Which he got.
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I’m thinking the same thing. I’d be curious to know what was going on around him at the time he got into the Q400 to the time he started the taxi. A lot of things in that short time alone had to really work in his favor to even make it out to the runway.
 
Well there are youtube videos online going through the startup procedures, the information is available. He probably picked up some knowledge just being a ramper, then with access to the aircraft he could have been in the cockpit a few times... maybe with a pictorial diagram of what various controls do and started figuring it out. No reason to think he couldn't have been up in cockpits a dozen times looking at things and making plans.
 
Makes me think of when the Air Force was trying to think up things ATC do to prevent hijacking an airplane. As you can tell, not a whole hell of a lot. Sure we can ring out the phone, call the cops but by the time they get there the aircraft is already gone. Then they required everyone with a radio check, engine run or tow to call the tower to prevent hijack. Stupidest idea they ever had. Now we get all these useless calls. They could start every engine on base and we'd never hear them. Someone who wants to hijack a plane won't key up a radio.
 
Timbeck2 said:
Makes me think of when the Air Force was trying to think up things ATC do to prevent hijacking an airplane. As you can tell, not a whole hell of a lot. Sure we can ring out the phone, call the cops but by the time they get there the aircraft is already gone. Then they required everyone with a radio check, engine run or tow to call the tower to prevent hijack. Stupidest idea they ever had. Now we get all these useless calls. They could start every engine on base and we'd never hear them. Someone who wants to hijack a plane won't key up a radio.
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Push-button automatic runway spike strips.
 
eman1200 said:
A bunch of things just don’t add up for me.... I just don’t see if you’ve never flown anything before how you’d get that plane started, taxi’d and everything else he did in that plane, sim or not. But fine, let’s say with ZERO experience you did. Was there just a headset laying in the plane? Connected? Ok fine, maybe there was. How do u know the frequency? Is there a big giant ‘push to talk’ button? He also used several key terms that most likely a non pilot would ever use or know about. He also knew to refer to fuel in terms of pounds. Lots of other things I’m not buying about him having zero experience.

Finally, if he just wanted to off himself, fine. But the way he was talking on the radio (like a total douche) shows he wanted his 15 minutes of fame. Which he got.
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Yes, headsets are in the cockpit and frequently plugged in. I really think being a ramper and a flight sim nut that there is plenty of knowledge to pull this sort of stunt off, especially these days with youtube. I'm not a bit surprised that douche boy was able to get it off the ground though once in the air, he did better than I would have thought. That makes me think that he had some experience actually flying real planes even if he never took actual lessons. He might have flown with friends or taken a discovery flight or two.

cowman said:
Well there are youtube videos online going through the startup procedures, the information is available. He probably picked up some knowledge just being a ramper, then with access to the aircraft he could have been in the cockpit a few times... maybe with a pictorial diagram of what various controls do and started figuring it out. No reason to think he couldn't have been up in cockpits a dozen times looking at things and making plans.
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Yep. As I stated in another post, rampers learn a lot and are shown a lot and are allowed to do a lot.
 
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