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Seattle airport employee reportedly hijacks plane, does barrel roll with F-15 jet in pursuit (VIDEO) Hijacked plane performs tricks & crashes near Seattle airport with F-15s in pursuit (VIDEOS)
(35 minutes later)
A Horizon Air Q400 plane, flown without Seattle Airport traffic controller authorization, has reportedly performed several aerobatic tricks and crashed after at least one F-15 jet was reportedly sent to intercept it. A Horizon Air Q400 plane, flown without Seattle Airport traffic controller authorization, reportedly performed several aerobatic tricks and crashed after at least one F-15 jet was sent to intercept it, officials confirmed.
A Horizon Airlines plane with no passengers inside crashed after takeoff following a chase by two F-15 fighter jets that were scrambled by North American Aerospace Defense Command to deal with the incident. While the jets were in pursuit of the small plane, air traffic control helped the rogue plane stay clear of the Seattle cosmopolitan area, ABC reports. A mechanic “from unknown airlines” stole the aircraft at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday night, the Pierce County sheriff said in a statement. “[The man was] doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills caused crash” on Ketron Island.
After taking off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the hijacked plane crashed on Ketron Island. No casualties have been reported so far. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department and the Coast Guard dispatched rescue vessels to the scene.
“Stolen horizon airplane crashed into Ketron island. Preliminary info is that a mechanic from unknown airlines stole plane. Was doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills caused crash into Island,” the Pierce County sheriff tweeted. “Male is confirmed a suicidal male. Acted alone he is 29 year old Pierce county residence. We are working back ground on him now.”
The plane was chased by two F-15 fighter jets that were scrambled by North American Aerospace Defense Command to deal with the incident. While the jets were in pursuit of the small plane, air traffic control helped the rogue plane stay clear of the Seattle cosmopolitan area. “Told F 15s made it within a few minutes of theft of plane. Pilots kept plane out of harms way and people on ground safe [sic],” the sheriff tweeted. 
The sheriff said that the 29-year-old perpetrator acted alone and “was confirmed a suicidal male.” He stressed that it wasn’t a terrorism-related incident.
“It was unfathomable, it was something out of a movie,” a witness told the Seattle Times. “The smoke lingered. You could still hear the F-15s, which were flying low.”
Alaska Airlines confirmed the incident on Twitter, saying that the plane operated by its subsidiary Horizon Air had an “unauthorized take-off" without passengers.
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