[suspenseful music playing]
[mother] I have not heard the audio.
I still don't want to hear the audio.
I can't hear his voice.
[sniffles] 'Cause his voice
was very special.
His voice... He spoke so well,
and I knew that as soon as I heard...
[sniffles]
I just couldn't handle it.
[traffic controller 1]
This copy is being prepared by
the Seattle Airport Traffic Control Tower.
The subject concerns an aircraft accident
involving November 449 Quebec X-ray
at approximately 02
33 UTC.
I certify that the following
is a true copy
of the original recorded transmissions
pertaining to the aircraft accident.
[producer] Ready?
Let's do it.
[reporter 1] ...into the extraordinary case
of a stolen plane in Seattle.
[bystander 1]
That is not a drone. That is a real plane.
[bystander 2] What the hell?
[tense music playing]
[reporter 2] Eyewitnesses on the ground
were shocked at what they were seeing.
[beeping]
[music ends]
[narrator] Live from Fox 13 News,
this is Good Day Seattle.
[upbeat music playing]
[news anchor] Hi there, everyone.
Just about 8:29 here
on your Friday morning.
Thank you for joining us
on Good Day Seattle.
- Hi, I'm Erin Mayovsky.
- And I'm Bill Wixey,
and we begin with a live look
at Sea-Tac Airport, where a busy travel
weekend is kicking off,
and the weather's gonna cooperate.
It's gonna be
a pretty nice weekend, right?
[weathercaster]
This will be a fantastic weekend
in the greater Seattle area.
Here our Capitol Hill camera
showing partly cloudy skies this morning.
[line ringing]
[Ken] Ramp Tower, Ken Rupp.
[Colleen] Hi, this is Colleen
at Seattle Approach.
[Ken] Hi Colleen, how are you?
[Colleen chuckles]
Pretty good, how about you?
[Ken chuckles] Just dandy.
[Colleen] Oh good.
Sea-Tac is considered to be
a Core 30 airport,
which means it's one of the top 30
busiest airports in the United States.
[chattering]
As operations supervisor,
I'm responsible
for handling anything that happens,
ordinary or out of the ordinary.
[reporter 3] Immigration reform,
a government shutdown,
all being discussed
in one breath right now,
and for many on a daily basis.
[suspenseful music playing]
It was a normal shift
up until I got that call.
[traffic controller 2] Horizon 2006
I'll have you turn in the air.
Runway one six center. Clear for takeoff.
[pilot 1] Clear for takeoff
one six center, Horizon 2006.
[traffic controller 2] Aye sir,
one one Papa on taxi pop across.
Runway one six left. What is your gate?
[pilot 1] On Papa [unintelligible].
Gate zero one.
[news anchor 2] Marine biologists
are keeping a close eye
on an endangered orca off the waters
around the southern Gulf Islands.
The mother has been carrying the corpse
of her calf for more than a week,
as Tom Walsh explains,
they may believe the mother is
going through a deep grieving process.
[pilot 2] Depart Horizon 2006, 2300,
3000.
[Ken] Horizon Air 2006.
Seattle Departure radar contact.
Cleared direct VAMPS.
Climb and maintain 15,000.
[pilot 2] VAMPS up to 15,000, Horizon 24.
I'm sorry, 2006.
[tense music playing]
[door closes, locks]
[engine turns on]
[Ken] Aircraft on Charlie,
lining up, runway one six center.
Say your call sign.
The Dash 8 holding
on runway one six center.
[music continues]
[Ken] The Dash on runway one six center
say your call sign.
Who is the Dash 8
holding on runway one six center?
[rattles]
[traffic controller 3]
That aircraft was taking off rolling.
I don't know what he was doing.
His wheels were smoking left and right,
as they are right now,
as he's rolling down the runway.
[Ken] Alright,
I'm not even talking to him.
[unknown pilot] Seattle Ground.
Horizon guy,
about to take off.
This is going to be crazy.
[music continues]
[music ends]
[dial tone]
[line ringing]
[Colleen] Approach, Colleen.
[traffic controller 4] Hey, Colleen?
- [Colleen] Is this Jason?
- [Jason] Yeah. Hey, we just had a Dash 8-
He's just taken off, taxi out of cargo 1.
He never called us.
[Colleen] Okay.
[Jason] He's climbing
just off the south end, about a mile.
- [Colleen] Okay, I think I see it.
- [Jason] We have no contact with him.
[Colleen] Okay, I'll take care of it.
I'll get right back to you.
Bye.
- [line ringing]
- [tense music playing]
[automated voice] You've reached
the FAA Washington Operations Center.
Be advised.
All calls may be recorded or monitored.
- [Colleen] Just answer.
- [automated voice] Please stand by.
[smooth jazz playing on phone]
[smooth jazz ends]
[operator 1] Headquarters.
Go ahead, Seattle.
[Colleen] Hey, this is Colleen
at Seattle Approach Control.
We got a potential very serious situation.
[tense music continues]
Everything pointed to it being a hijack.
This is a major metropolitan area.
[airplane passing overhead]
If that plane was used as a weapon,
then thousands of people
would definitely be k*lled.
[bystander 2] What the hell?
- [bystander 3] sh*t.
- Oh, my God. What is happening right now?
[bystander 4]
It's a f*cking Alaska Airlines Q-400.
What the f*ck is he doing over here?
Go get the truck keys and get my wallet.
[unknown pilot]
Hey, Horizon Ground, you on?
Seattle Ground, I mean.
[Ken] Who is transmitting on Ramp?
[unknown pilot] Sorry.
Horizon guy, 449 Quebec X-ray.
[Ken] Yeah, 449. Did you just take off?
[unknown pilot] Yeah.
[Ken] And you're not supposed
to be on that aircraft?
[unknown pilot] Uh, no.
[Ken] What's going on?
Are you flying the plane?
[unknown pilot]
Uh, I did a kind of a bad thing.
Kind of a selfish thing.
Uh. Hah!
But it's all good.
I'm gonna go check out Rainier.
[music continues]
[Ken] Yeah, 449. So, you hijacked
the plane is what you're saying?
[unknown pilot] Uh, yeah.
[Ken] 449, say again.
[unknown pilot] Yeah, I'm afraid I did.
You know, I don't want to take up...
take up this channel.
What's another good one to talk to?
[Ken] 449, stand by.
I'm getting a frequency for you.
[unknown pilot] Hey, copy that.
I appreciate it. Hey.
Any idea of a Dash 8 Q400
can do a barrel roll?
[Colleen] When the plane took off,
I had no idea who was behind the wheel.
[music ends]
Where is he going to go?
What does he want to do?
I needed to get a single controller
on that frequency to talk to him.
And the right person was Andrew.
[Andrew] The gentleman flying the Q400,
can you hear me?
[unknown pilot] Hey, you on?
[Andrew] Yeah, Seattle Approach here.
- [unknown pilot] Hey.
- [automated voice] Low terrain.
- [unknown pilot] I keep getting a weather...
- [automated voice] Pull up.
like a weather
thing.
I just want to talk to you.
[Andrew] Okay, and you're in the...
You're in the Dash 8
that just took off Sea-Tac?
[unknown pilot] Yeah, affirmative.
[Andrew] And do you have a call sign?
[unknown pilot]
Nah man, I'm a ground service agent.
I don't know what that is.
[Colleen] Okay, he's a ground crew guy.
[beeping]
[person 2] Proceed.
[person 3] Just want to give you guys
an update real quick.
We believe we have multiple witnesses
that saw the guy near the transit plex,
so the Cargo 1 area.
Push back the airplane himself.
While the plane was rolling,
- disconnect the pushback tug...
- [Colleen] Mm-hmm.
...ran up the stairs, jumped in the plane,
- started driving it off...
- [Colleen] Holy crap.
...cut off jetliners, and just took off.
[Colleen] Wow.
[person 3] So, pretty, pretty brazen,
- amazing stuff.
- [Colleen] Yeah.
[line clicks]
[ground crew worker 1]
When I got word that a plane was taken,
it was on the news.
I heard the voice,
and I said, "That's him."
[melancholy music playing]
I couldn't believe it.
First of all, how did he pull that off?
How did he get that plane in the air
by himself when it takes two... two people?
Takes the captain and the first officer.
And how did no one know?
[Andrew] Okay, and what's your name?
[unknown pilot] That's a question
I've been asking my whole life.
[whoops, chuckles]
Identity issues.
[Andrew] Just so I can talk to you,
what's your name so I can
reach out to you a little easier?
[retches]
[unknown pilot] Sorry, my mic came off.
I threw up a little bit.
You know--
I-- Hold on--
sh**t. Man, I'm sorry about this.
I hope this doesn't ruin your day.
No, no. You're not ruining my day.
I just- can I just get your first name
so I can, I know what to call you?
So it'll be a little easier
to talk to you.
[unknown pilot] Yeah, Richard Russell.
[Andrew] Okay, Rich, appreciate that.
[Colleen] Richard Russell.
His name is Richard Russell.
[door closes]
[mother] When we heard the report,
we had no clue that it was him.
He was never Richard Russell.
He was never.
[melancholy music playing]
His name is Beebo.
It's always been Beebo.
It will always be Beebo.
Beebo.
[person 4] Hold it.
[news anchor 3]
Deadly drama in the skies over Seattle.
Tonight we're learning much more
about the 29-year-old ground employee
with Horizon Air,
that company owned by Alaska Airlines,
accused of bringing that busy airport
to a halt
and putting so many lives at risk.
[music continues]
When I heard it, it-it destroyed me.
I started working for Horizon in 2015.
Pay wasn't that good,
but I needed the job, so I took it.
Richard trained me.
And we worked together.
Bringing in my first plane, I was nervous.
Well, the Q400, it's a prop plane.
It's like an open blender.
You can get hurt quickly
if you don't know what you're doing.
But Richard was right behind me.
He reassured me not to be
so scared of that, just take your time.
So that's how I got really
to know Richard.
He seemed like a levelheaded person.
[music continues]
[Wixey] Why he did it?
Well, that is still a mystery.
[Andreas] My first thought is,
"What did they do to him?"
It wasn't what he did to Horizon.
What did Horizon do to make him do that?
[news anchor 4] He's been identified
rather as 29-year-old Richard Russell.
Officials say he did not have
a pilot's license,
but he did have clearance
to be in a secure area of the airport.
[Karen] It's just a whirlwind.
I remember seeing his picture on the TV,
and it was funny
'cause when he was a little boy,
three or four, I had a dream.
I was walking past a newspaper stand,
you know, the old-fashioned one,
put the 50 cents in, get the newspaper,
and on that was his picture.
And I thought that was so funny.
It was a dream.
But then 24 years later, it was a reality.
[music continues]
So I got a little bit off
the beaten path and, uh,
don't really know where to go, um...
Kinda found myself in a pickle.
[Andrew]
As far as just flying the plane around,
you seem comfortable with that?
[Richard] Oh, hell yeah,
it's a blast, man.
I've played video games before, so
I--
You know,
I know what I'm doing a little bit.
That's when I realized he hasn't
ever flown an airplane before.
[Andrew] Okay, and--
and you can see
all the terrain around you?
You've got no issue
with visibility or anything?
[Richard] Nah, everything's peachy,
peachy clean.
Just did a little circle around Rainier.
It's beautiful.
I think I got some gas to go check out
the Olympics.
And, yeah.
[Colleen]
The pilot sounds really hyped up.
[operator 1] Okay,
can you ask him how much fuel
that he thinks he has on the airplane?
[Colleen] Okay.
There's two things that everyone is
trained to do in air traffic control.
You find out how many people are
on board the aircraft,
and how much fuel is remaining
on the aircraft,
because if it crashes,
the firefighters need to know
how big is the fire going to be.
And they need to know how many
bodies they're looking for.
[Andrew] Okay, Rich, do you have an idea
of how much fuel you have left?
[Richard] Damn! I already burned
like a thousand pounds,
so I'm down to 2,100.
I started at like 30 something.
[Colleen] At 2100 pounds,
that gave him about an hour of fly time.
In an hour he's gonna fall out of the sky.
[airplane passing overhead]
- [Karen] Got a hot sunny day for you.
- [person 5] I know.
[Karen]
I think this one looks better though.
My little bundle of joy.
[kid 1] Mommy.
He was a bundle of joy.
[brother 1] He was always a treasure,
you know, in a house full of chaos,
it was nice to have something,
you know, that was...
that was calm and that wasn't so rough.
[brother 2] Growing up in my house,
it was pretty hectic.
Lots of kids. I am a twin.
Then I have two sisters that are twins,
and then Beebo was the middle child.
- [clamoring]
- [melancholy music playing]
[Karen] You're the man.
[Phil] My sisters and Beebo
had a different dad,
- and he... he was an alcoholic...
- [Karen] Let's see your muscles.
[Phil] ...so that made the house
a little more hectic.
[Karen]
I'll show you my muscle. There you go.
Oh, that's a big muscle, Beebo.
I don't know what to do about that.
Growing up, we didn't have, like,
the easiest childhood,
but, um, Beebo was always there
to take care of my sister and I.
[chattering]
[aunt] Their father was not a good person.
He was physically a*usive.
He was verbally a*usive.
It was awful.
When Beebo was six
and the girls were five,
I took the kids, and we left.
I did not think I could survive
with five kids, but I had no choice.
I had to step up. I had to be strong.
I did not get a dime in federal aid,
not a dime.
[person 6] Where would he live?
[speaks indistinctly]
[Pat] I think that was one reason
he was so kind.
[vocalizes]
And that he was funny because
he didn't want to be like his father.
[Karen] And the birthday boy...
And, uh, Beebo has
his first football game next Saturday.
Despite all of it, he busted through it.
Whoo! Whoo!
- [laughter]
- Whoo!
[orchestral music playing]
[cheering in distance]
[sister] Everybody knew Beebo.
Everybody loved Beebo.
He's the one and only Beebo,
but really, truly he was the one and only.
[melancholy music playing]
[speaking indistinctly]
- [Amber] These are the lockers.
- Yeah.
- [shutter clicks]
- Okay, send that to Mom.
All right, I did it.
[Karen] Beebo!
- [audience cheering]
- [whistle blows]
[Mary] He played football. He wrestled.
[Karen] Go, Beebo!
[Mary] He did track.
He was homecoming king.
- He was voted class clown.
- Whoo-hoo!
[Mary] He was all of the above.
Wasilla's most loved.
- [chattering]
- [music continues]
He was incredibly thoughtful,
and he was an intelligent person.
I think that that escaped a lot of folks.
[dance music playing]
I think he was what people describe
as a strong Christian.
- [laughing, screaming]
- [melancholy music continues]
Just a poster boy
of what an all-American kid would be.
[Pat] He was not the type of person
that we ever thought
would behave like that.
[tense music playing]
[Richard] Let me be real clear here.
I do not intend to hurt anyone.
I'm just out for some sights.
I do not want to hurt anyone.
So, uh...
No need to fear me.
[Andrew] Okay,
we're just concerned because,
well, it sounds like you shouldn't be
piloting that aircraft.
Is there other people on board?
[Richard] No, no.
I, uh--
I figured
it can't be that hard, right?
So I'd just take it out for a spin.
[Andrew] So it's just you on board?
[Richard] Yes, sir.
I wouldn't want to hurt anyone else.
Given like the history in America of 9/11
and hijackings and these other things,
if you were to like walk into a situation
where the only thing that you know
is that there is a person
who has stolen an airplane,
that doesn't necessarily bode well
for that person's assumed character.
[Richard] Hey, you're probably going to
send some some jets out this way, huh?
[Andrew] Well, Rich,
that's not the plan right now,
but can you just tell me
the altitude you're at?
[Richard] Yeah,
I kind of think that's a lie, man.
If I were you,
I'd be sending the jets right away
because, for all you know,
I could be a bad guy.
[music continues]
Well, I kinda am a bad guy.
But he could never be a bad guy.
He was always a good guy.
He had a heart of gold.
[operator 1] Western, Headquarters.
I'm requesting military assistance
on that primary target.
He just made a threat.
[operator 2]
Yeah, this guy's pretty messed up.
He sounds like a really bad dude here.
[operator 3] Western, observe.
And we're scrambling Portland.
[operator 1] Thank you.
[music continues]
[aircraft dispatcher]
ROCK 41 active air scramble
in the [unintelligible].
[Colleen] ROCK 41.
Seattle Approach. Roger.
And the Sea-Tac altimeter, 2-9-9-6.
[Colleen] The fighters were going
to be launched off of Portland
no matter what.
It's protocol.
If you're steal a commercial airliner,
there's going to be fighters on your tail
at some point in time.
[bystander 2] What's going on?
We got an airplane circling
our neighborhood with two jets.
But to have fighter jets
blow an American citizen out of the air,
I didn't want that to happen.
Nobody wanted that to happen.
[news anchor 5] F-*5 fighters
scramble from Portland,
flying faster than the speed of sound,
intercepting Russell south of Seattle.
They are prepared to sh**t him down
as controllers try to talk him down.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Karen] I just couldn't fathom...
what he had done.
I don't know why he snapped.
[Colleen]
If he sees the fighters, that's--
obviously going to change
the situation because...
- [operator 1] Sure.
- [Colleen] ...what's he's going to do.
[operator 1] Sure. I've asked the pilot,
the fighters to stay away
from the airplane,
not to scare him.
- [Colleen] Okay.
- [operator 1] So it's mission inspect
- right now.
- [Colleen] Okay.
[jet fighter 2] Headquarters, Western.
We are shadowing.
[beep]
[operator 1] Alright, thank you.
Mission shadow.
Those are not... Oh...
Oh, those are the shoes
I wore at people's wedding.
Do you want to bring this in
and go through it later, Mom,
see if there's anything you want to take?
I put all of this stuff in here...
[Phil] Let me see this.
...when I was cleaning out the house
after the accident to keep it safe.
Oh, here we go. This is it. [sighs]
[Phil] Is that the one? Oh, yeah.
[Karen strains]
- [Phil] There's a bunch of stuff.
- [Karen] I-I... [sighs]
I don't know what I wanna do
with Beebo's stuff.
Repack it and...
But I-I just can't take it with me, Phil.
- Yeah, I know.
- I just can't.
- His varsity letter. Look at that.
- Oh, wow.
Wrestling, track, football.
- I couldn't afford to get a, uh...
- A letterman?
- ...a j... Yeah, the jacket.
- The jacket?
Yeah.
That's okay. We got this.
I said,
"You can always put it on a T-shirt."
- [Phil] It's pretty nice.
- It is.
[Karen] "18 years ago, a beautiful"...
Oh, God, I'm gonna cry.
..."nine pound baby warrior was born."
[chuckles]
"He was named Richard Bryan,
and he brought great joy to his family.
As you write the rest of this story,
always remember you are loved."
[voice trembling] "We are all so proud
of the wonderful young man
that you have grown into." [sniffles]
"You bring such humor
and unpredictability to our lives."
[both chuckle]
Uh, "Go forth
and enjoy all life has to offer."
- And... Ugh.
- Who wrote that?
- I did. [sniffles]
- You did? That's awesome.
- [Karen] Yeah, I'm not just a pretty face.
- [Phil chuckles]
[Andrew] And the gentleman in the Q400,
flying the Dash 8, can you still hear me?
The grounds crewman in the Dash 8,
are you still on this frequency?
Can you still hear me?
[Richard] Yeah. Hey, sorry. I--
I lost you behind the mountain, I think.
I thought you were just being boring.
[Andrew] Okay, I can hear you
loud and clear now.
[Richard] Hey.
Can you get a Q400 expert on,
or just some guy who knows all about it?
[Andrew] Ok, ah.
Nobody here
knows how to fly one of those aircraft,
but we'll see what we can do
and get you in contact with somebody.
What's your plan here?
Are you going to come back to Sea-Tac
and try and land,
or what do you want to do?
[Richard] What do you think I should do?
What do you think I should do, FAA guy?
[Andrew] Well, we're trying to get...
get in contact with somebody
who can maybe help you because you said
you're unfamiliar
with how to land that, right?
[Richard] I never really learned
how to land the plane.
I did a lot of research
on like how to start it up
and get it to go.
In a couple of hours, I guess.
But, yeah, I wouldn't know how to land it.
I wasn't really planning on landing it.
[chattering]
[Amber] Beebo graduated high school
kind of our hometown, golden child,
and went off to play football
at a junior college in North Dakota.
Got a scholarship to go play football,
and, uh, go live his dream.
[Chris] That transition
from Wasilla to North Dakota,
I think that's probably where he started
really first kind of considering
his identity and purpose
in, like, more precise terms.
I remember him talking
about how like everyone was drinking,
doing the kind of the typical,
like, early college things,
and he was not participating.
He loved football.
He didn't really like North Dakota.
I think there was a lot of things
that didn't align with his Christianity.
[Chris] He just realized that like,
maybe this football thing isn't the thing
that I should be doing.
After high school,
I ended up going to school down in Oregon,
a small kind of junior college there.
And I said, "Hey, man.
You could come here."
Turned out to be
one of the best things for him
'cause that's where he met Hannah.
[person] Spin her, Beebo. Spin her!
[laughing]
[Karen] He was smitten from day one,
and I do remember him calling me up
and saying,
"Mom, she is authentic for Christ.
She is the real deal. She's everything."
Hannah was perfect for Beebo.
She was really funny.
She was a baker, which spoke to his heart.
[Pat] We all knew the story.
We knew this was the love of his life.
He fought for her, and won her love.
[Karen] Got engaged and married
before he graduated from college.
She was beautiful.
You saw the pictures.
Oh, God. They were just so beautiful.
[Mary] After they got married,
Hannah finished her culinary arts degree,
and had this dream to open a bakery.
[Karen] They found this bakery for sale.
They bought it,
and made it Hannah Marie's bakery.
And it was kind of cute, you know,
the two of them in a bakery.
It was their baby.
It really was their baby.
[Phil]
Beebo kind of put everything on hold.
Schooling. His...
Everything just to help her out
and support her,
which was awesome, you know,
that he could do that for her.
[Chris] He had a-a degree of optimism
about his future,
and his life and purpose,
even though it wasn't necessarily refined
at that point.
He was distinctly hopeful.
- [wind whipping]
- [chattering]
[plane engine drones]
[Richard] This is probably
like jail time for life, huh?
I mean, I would hope it is.
For a guy like me?
[Andrew] We're not thinking about that.
What we're thinking about is how we're
just going to get you on the ground safe
and resolve this situation.
So, uh...
[Richard] I don't know
if I want to return this plane
because I threw up all inside of it.
It's bad.
[Colleen]
Andrew, will he take control instructions?
Just ask him.
"Will you accept control instructions?"
[Richard] Hey, what's your name, FAA guy?
[Andrew] Rich, my name is Andrew. And--
Is there any chance that I can
give you some headings
or some control instructions
to help you out here?
[Richard] Yeah, that's all mumbo jumbo.
I have no idea what all that means.
I wouldn't know how to punch it in.
[Andrew] But if I were to give you
like a heading,
maybe you could look at the compass.
If I gave you a heading
that would be what the compass says.
[Richard] Oh, right near the jets?
You're going to take me to the jets?
[Andrew] No, I'm not taking you
to any jets.
I'm actually keeping you away
from aircraft
that are trying to land at Sea-Tac.
[Richard] Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.
I don't want to screw with that.
I'm glad--
glad you're not
uh...
you know, screwing up everyone else's day
on account of me.
[Colleen]
The only way out where nobody dies is
if he lands the plane successfully.
But we have a... a pilot
with zero experience.
We can't have him land just anywhere.
It has to be a runway
that is long enough and wide enough
for a Dash 8 to land on it.
[Andrew] Okay, Rich. And, instead of
bringing you back to Sea-Tac,
there is the runway
just off your right side in about a mile.
Do you see that?
That's the-- that's McChord Field.
[Richard] Oh man,
those guys would rough me up
if I tried landing there.
They probably got anti-aircraft!
[Andrew]
No, they don't have any of that stuff.
We're just trying to find a place
for you to land safely.
[Richard] Not quite ready
to bring it down just yet,
but holy smokes, I gotta--
I gotta stop looking at the fuel
because it's going down quick!
[pilot] And good morning, everybody.
We'd like to welcome you aboard.
We'll do the best we can
to get you on your way down to San Diego,
where it's a beautiful 75 degrees.
My mom hasn't been the same since.
Really crushed her.
She's renting her place out,
so she doesn't have a home base anymore.
She just feels like she has
to be on the move all the time.
[Colleen] Okay, the pilot--
The other Horizon pilot is on frequency.
[Andrew] And Rich, here in a second,
there's going to be another pilot
that comes on.
And he's a-- he's a pilot of a Q400.
And he's gonna try and help you out here
a little bit, okay?
[Richard] You are a very calm,
collect voice.
Not saying the wrong things.
I know--
you don't got to
beat around the bush with me though.
I'm not a sensitive kind of guy.
So--
[Bill] Hey Rich,
this is Captain Bill here.
Do you have any plans
on landing the airplane?
[Richard] I mean
I'm kinda enjoying just cruising around.
[Bill] Alright, well.
How fast are you going right now?
I hear the... the speed horn going off.
- [speed horn beeps]
- [Richard] Uh...
Where do I see that at?
[Andrew] Yeah,
he's at 300 knots over the ground.
[Bill] Okay, well,
try not to go any faster than that
because that's hard on the airplane.
We don't want to hurt the airplane.
[Richard] Oh, gotcha.
Hey, pilot guy-- You think--
You think this thing can do a barrel roll?
[Bill] Well, I'd try to figure out
how to use the autopilot first.
[Richard] Boring!
[PA system beeps]
[cabin crew] Please remain seated
with your seat belts fastened
and keep carry-on items stowed
until the captain has
turned the seat belt sign off.
Be careful when opening
the overhead bins to avoid injury.
[Karen] Every year,
I fly down to San Diego,
and pick up Beebo's car
at his sister's house.
It's a trip with no plans.
That's my release, traveling,
getting on the road.
You know, I can get in the car
and go anywhere,
where I know nobody, and be fine.
[Karen sighs]
Okay. Let's go.
[inhales heavily] Road trip.
[engine starts]
[Karen] This car's name is Sally.
Every year, I take Sally out for, um...
about three months.
And we head east and west
and north and south,
and we visit friends and family,
and it's just a great way for me
to be lost in the...
my thoughts.
And nobody expects anything.
Um, nobody expects you to be strong
when you're sad.
[birds chirp]
[Bill] Rich, are you still there?
[Richard] Yeah. Hey boys.
[Bill] Ok, Rich. Uh, do you have an idea
of how much fuel you have left?
[Richard] Aw, man, I'm sick.
I'm throwing up quite a bit.
Andrew.
I want you to whisper sweet nothings
into my ear.
[Andrew]
Rich, I don't think I can do that for you.
Can you tell me, do you know
how much fuel you have left?
[Richard] Damn it, Andrew!
People's lives are at stake here!
[Andrew] Now, Rich, don't--
don't say stuff like that.
[Richard] Nah, I told you I'm not--
I don't want to hurt no one.
I just want you to whisper
sweet nothings into my ear.
[laughing]
[Pat] Somewhere in my nephew's life,
something changed.
He went from a fun-loving,
easygoing, happy person
to someone
who felt a lot of pressure in their life.
[Karen]
The bakery was going along really well,
and then, next thing I heard,
they were moving out of Oregon
and heading north.
My sense is that Hannah's family
wanted them closer in Seattle.
[Mary] I asked him once
how successful the bakery was,
and he described it as,
when you do all the math of all the hours
and the hard work that they put in,
they were basically making
both, like, $4 an hour.
I do wonder if because Hannah came
from kind of a traditional family
where, you know, her dad worked,
her mom homeschooled the girls,
I think that that was maybe
the expectation of what they wanted
for their daughter.
[Amber]
Hannah's family was different than ours.
Married couple still,
very, very religious, pretty wealthy.
[Karen] Hannah's father wanted Beebo
to get a real job.
He wanted Beebo to have
the perfect middle class family.
The picket fence, you know.
But that was never important to Beebo.
I think that really kind of it was like
the first stumbling block along the way.
[Karen]
Beebo did not wanna move to Seattle.
He was not a big city boy.
I'm sure it was tough for him, you know,
starting over in a big city.
Beebo was kinda, "Well, what do I do now?"
[Richard] Hey, FAA guy, Andrew, you on?
[Andrew] Yeah, I'm still here, Rich.
Rich, can you hear me?
[Richard] How'd you get your job?
[Andrew] You asked how I got my job?
I just applied for it online.
[Richard] No way, straight off the street?
[Andrew]
Well, I had some experience prior.
[Richard] Right.
Yeah, what kind of experience?
[Andrew] Just military service.
[Richard] Hey, thanks for your service.
[Andrew] Thank you.
[Richard] I was too fat.
Well, yeah, I'm too fat to join.
I was thinking about it
and probably a good thing I didn't.
[Karen] He went to apply for the military.
But he couldn't get in
because of his weight.
He went to apply for police,
but he didn't... [chuckles]
...pass the practical.
I said, "Why... How did you not pass that?"
And he goes, well, let's just say
the police and I have different opinions
on how we treat people.
So he said, "Well, I'm gonna get a job
with an airline."
So he could do trips up to Alaska.
That was Beebo's dream.
He wanted to come home.
So Beebo took the job with Horizon.
[Karen] As far as I know,
he wears a little yellow vest and, uh...
[laughs] He, um...
He receives luggage,
he sends it on its way.
He does the, um...
You know, leads the planes in and out.
He sent me the video
of him driving the plane
over to the repair spot or whatever.
[chuckling] He goes,
"I'm taking the plane for a ride."
[jovial music playing]
[Richard] Hi, I'm Beebo Russell,
and I'm a ground-service agent.
That means I lift a lot of bags.
Like, a lot of bags.
So many bags.
Look at all them bags.
Ooh, a purple one.
I usually have to work outside in this.
But it allows me
to do some pretty cool things too.
[Phil] I remember him telling me
that the reason he took the job was
for the travel benefit.
And he really... He really dug that.
A little sheep herding in Ireland.
[sheep bleat]
[Karen] He flew Hannah,
and they went to Ireland,
and-and, uh, France, and the Faroes.
And I think they traveled well together.
Beebo wanted to have fun in life.
And Hannah was good with that.
They said at one point
that he had used, like, 170 trips
in the three years he was there.
He and I would, um, compete
with each other,
because I was flying on his perks.
Pushing rocks, Las Vegas.
[Chris]
One of the things that he did for me,
I was interviewing for medical schools
and I didn't have any money left.
And he gave me
a bunch of his, like, family tickets,
so I could interview,
and I did this, like, really big loop.
And there's, like, no way
I would've been able to afford that.
[Richard] Most importantly,
I get to visit those I love most.
It evens out in the end.
[jovial music ends]
He... He liked his job.
Really did...
at first.
[melancholy music playing]
[Richard] Hi, my name's Beebo Russell,
and today, I will be interviewing
my fellow employees
about their work and travel life
as a ground-service agent.
Do you like working
as a ground-service agent?
Why or why not?
[coworker 1] I do and I don't.
One of the good things
about working here is
there's good people that work here,
and one of the bad things
about working here is
there's really bad people that work here.
[coworker 2] I enjoy the flexibility
of the schedule and the flight benefits.
I do not enjoy management.
[Richard] Agreed.
[melancholy piano playing]
[Andreas]
A ground-service agent's job is hard work.
Working in hot weather in the summertime.
And having the cold season.
Working 12 flights a day.
We're understaffed, underpaid, overworked.
But Richard,
I've never really seen him mad.
You know, I've never seen him frustrated.
We had at least 50 people
in that break room.
But in the midst of everyone talking,
he's in the corner reading a book.
He was really quiet
and-and stayed to himself.
And I think he was just trying
to keep that persona
of professionalism at the job,
because he was trying to move up.
He was serious about it.
He was trying to better himself
to make more money,
to provide for his wife, to be a provider.
[Chris] I think one of the narratives
that we're given
definitely within, like, a lot
of traditional Christian institutions is,
that as men, you must provide
for your family
in these very specific ways.
And if you're not doing that
abundantly economically,
then somehow you are, uh, less than.
[Danny] It was the end of the third year
when I started to notice
that the taste of the job was
a little bit more bitter for him.
The longer he worked there,
I knew he wasn't happy there.
[angle grinder whizzes]
It's a physical job, repetitive motion,
which is really tough on your body.
[welding torch sizzles]
He said they worked long hours.
They didn't really treat him that good.
Pay wasn't very good.
So I think the job wasn't worth
the travel benefits anymore, you know.
[melancholy music ends]
[Andreas] They did not treat us
with dignity and respect.
Some of the pilots would call us
"monkeys in the tug."
And then we're like,
"Did he just really just call us that?"
Once he was there long enough,
he started to see the separation
between the pilots and the air crew,
and those on the ground.
He would hear the chatter
over his headset.
They would call them "ramp rats,"
and things like that.
It made him feel like crap.
We would tell our supervisors.
They wouldn't do nothing about it.
[Andrew] What were you thinking?
You thinking you want to try and land?
[Richard]
Hey, I'll go on record for saying,
you know, if you asked me why I did it,
it's probably because...
probably because
not making minimum wage.
We'll chalk it up to that.
Maybe that'll grease the gears
a little bit with the higher ups?
Maybe--
Yeah.
[Colleen]
The minimum wage statement got me nervous.
He sounded disgruntled.
I was looking
at the airport radar display thinking,
"Oh, my goodness, all these airplanes
sitting here filled with fuel,
and if Richard turns around
and decides to come back
and land on top of one of them,
it's gonna explode the whole airport."
[Andreas] So minimum wage in Seattle
was $16 an hour,
but we wasn't getting that.
The pay was $12.75 an hour.
You can't live off of 12.75 an hour.
We're like, "How could this be legal?"
The first excuse was,
"Well, we're a smaller airline.
We're not really making enough money."
But then, we're like,
"Well, when we look at our numbers,
we're making a lot of money."
He was definitely vocal
about how ridiculous it was
that that company was able to pay less
than minimum wage.
[Andreas]
They didn't like us talking about it.
They didn't want to hear us.
But in the break room,
we talked about our pay
and everyone was like, "Eventually,
someone's going to do something
that's going to be dangerous.
Something that's gonna
get their attention.
So not talking,
someone's gonna take action."
[door closes]
[Andrew] Alright. What we're gonna do is
we're gonna keep him
in non-populated areas like the vector.
Keep him over the Sound.
[Colleen] Okay.
[Colleen] Time was ticking,
and the fuel was just running out,
and running out, and running out.
[Bill] Hey, Rich.
How do you feel about just flying over
Puget Sound for a while?
[Richard] That'd be a good place
to sh**t me down, huh?
[Bill] Well, it'd be a soft place to land.
[Richard] Uh...
I wouldn't want to drown.
[Bill] Everybody's out sailing tonight.
There'll be a million sailboats
to pick you up.
[Richard grunts]
That sounds nice,
but I don't think a sailboat would
get to me before
the guys with the g*ns.
[Andrew] Well, there's plenty of
life jackets on that aircraft,
so you wouldn't have to
worry about having to swim.
[Richard]
You think if I land this successfully,
Alaska will give me a job as a pilot?
[Bill] Uh...
You know, I think they would give you
a job doing anything
if you could pull this off.
[Richard] Yeah, right!
Nah, I'm a white guy.
Yeah, and there it is.
There's the, uh...
"The white guy."
The white guy line that's been...
[sighs]
[Richard] Sorry, we won't get political.
[Bill] Yeah, we don't talk about
religion and politics on the flight deck.
[Richard] Yeah.
Um...
[sniffles]
Yeah, um... [sighs]
[producer] Is this hard to talk about for...
I mean, it's a little bit hard.
[sighs] Oh, boy. Why am I...
I need to stop and think about it.
[stammers]
But we're still rolling, right?
- [producer] Yeah.
- Okay.
- Could we cut the cameras?
- [producer] Yeah.
- [heavy breathing]
- [dogs panting]
[Phil] Especially being a white man,
I feel like if I say anything,
it's gonna come off
as, like, white privilege,
or I don't know.
[chuckles] I just don't wanna
get put in a box, you know,
'cause it's all these boxes
people are getting put in.
[Andreas] You gotta address
the elephant in the room.
It definitely sounds like racism to say,
"I didn't get the job because I...
'cause I'm white."
White people have a better chance
of getting a promotion
than an African American.
You just gotta be real about it.
But I've been Black for a long time...
[chuckling] ...all my life...
[normal] ...so I know for a fact
that he was not r*cist.
I never heard him
make any kind of complaints
about him being a white guy,
so that really surprised me.
[Andreas] People are gonna
"conspiracize" so many different ways,
but you gotta listen to everything,
listen to every single thing.
"Okay, I heard that part,
but what was he saying before then?"
He was saying someone else's words
back to us on the recording.
He was letting people know
what was said to him.
It's tough to try and... try and pinpoint,
you know, what happened.
[g*nshots]
[Danny] Somewhere around the third,
into the fourth years,
he had talked with his supervisor,
"Okay, I'm in a dead-end spot.
I wanna move up.
It's not happening as quickly.
How can I..." You know,
"How can I make this move along?"
And one of the things
that they spoke about was
having a college degree looks really good
and it's one way to set you apart.
[Phil] So he was doing night classes
trying to finish up his first degree.
He was starting to go to business school,
'cause he wanted to get, like,
a management job with Horizon
or move higher up.
And you know, school's a full-time job
on top of a full-time job.
He did everything
he thought he was supposed to do.
Went to school, got the qualification,
and still got shot down.
[g*nsh*t]
[Danny] His supervisor told him
he's not going to get that job
as a white guy.
[g*n clip clicks]
But Beebo's skin color had nothing to do
with him not getting that job.
Because the person who did
get that job was white. [chuckles] So...
[Andreas] I think it's divide and conquer.
They wanted him to be angry.
They wanted division,
so that we could not come together
and actually get something going,
because we were not covered by a union.
And if they kept us bickering
against each other... [chuckles]
...that never could happen.
[Karen]
It wasn't because that he was a white man.
That's not why he didn't get the job.
[car engine humming]
He didn't get the job
because of other things.
I think the reason why he wasn't hired is
'cause he wasn't
the right kind of a white.
And drawing back
to the, "I'm just a white guy."
Well, "Just a white guy." Okay.
Well, what kind of white guy are you?
Do you come from a wealthy background?
Does your family have stature?
If you grow up with money,
you're definitely gonna have
doors open for you
that normally wouldn't open.
White does not wash away poor.
He did not fit that mold that they wanted.
Richard, I believe, did not get the job
because he was considered White Tr*sh.
Beebo got f*cked by the...
just the way things are.
[Phil] He's getting this pressure
that he is a man, he's a provider,
he should, you know,
be making so much a year.
But then, at the same time,
when he's trying to make advancements,
he's running into these roadblocks.
I see how he could've felt,
like, just every turn,
there was an obstacle and a setback.
All of these things combined
just are creating the perfect storm.
[plane engines drone]
[Andrew] Now just--
just off your right and behind you,
there is another aircraft.
Would you be willing to talk to them
if they're on the frequency
and maybe they can help you land?
[Richard] Um.
Sure. I mean, I'm always down
to talk to people.
Uh...
I'm super thirsty though.
I threw up pretty much everything I had,
so I kinda gotta go in the back
and get some water.
[Andrew] No, no, no, no.
Rich, if you could just stay in the seat,
stay in the c*ck
and stay with me on the radio, please.
[Richard] Yeah, I already did it once,
it's cool.
But I just--
I got to step on my throw up,
that's disgusting.
One sec.
[Bill] Hey, Rich. This is Captain Bill
here. We're still listening.
My airplane's doing just fine.
How's yours?
[Andrew] He just stepped out for a second.
He'll be right back on.
[Bill] Okay.
[creaking]
[Richard] Alright, I'm back.
[Andrew] All right, Rich. Welcome back.
So, did you give any extra thought
as to what you want to do?
Do you want to try and land at McChord?
Or were you thinking about on the water?
Or what are you thinking?
[Richard]
I kinda fly by the set of my pants.
Pun intended.
I'm not quite sure what I want to do yet.
I do want to see if I can land.
That'd be cool, but
I don't feel like living anymore, so...
- [gasps, stammers]
- ...that's kind of the problem
that I'm dealing with.
I've never heard that.
Uh... I've never heard him say that.
Yeah, maybe I do need a minute. [chuckles]
So sorry.
[clicks tongue]
"I don't feel like living anymore."
That's the first time I've heard that.
[Richard] I don't want to deal
with the repercussions.
It's just kind of easy to just
nose down, close my eyes.
You know?
Sad, but kind of not either.
[Colleen] Okay.
He's just talking about doing a nose dive.
[Andrew] Well, Rich, just let you said,
you don't want to hurt anybody,
and we don't want
to see you get hurt either.
[Richard] Hey, where are the jets at?
I want to see those guys flying around.
[Colleen] ROCK 41,
do you want vectors for the intercept?
[ROCK 41] ROCK 41, affirmative.
Confirm altitude 2995.
I'm his mom. I should've known.
[sniffles]
[Richard] Hey, I want the coordinates
of that orca with the...
you know the mama orca, with the baby?
I want to go see that guy.
[Andrew] Hey. Hey Rich.
How much fuel you got left on there?
[Richard] Oh, man, not enough.
Not enough to get by,
like, uh, 760--
760 pounds.
[Andrew] Okay, Rich. Thank you.
The last report we got from Horizon was
750 pounds would've lasted him 15 minutes.
[Colleen] Roger.
[Andrew] Western. Headquarters.
[air traffic controller] Western.
[Andrew] Equates to 15 minutes of fuel.
[air traffic controller] Western.
[Richard] Man, have you been
to the Olympics?
These guys are gorgeous.
Holy smokes!
[Andrew] Yeah, I have been out there.
It's--
It's always a nice drive.
[ROCK 41] Hey, Rich. This is ROCK 41.
Man, how are you doing?
How about we had out to the west here,
get away from the terrain and stuff.
[Richard] Why? You got some property
out here you're worried about?
[Phil] Never ever would've thought
that he was...
unhappy with his life.
You know, not more unhappy
than, you know, normal.
I'm pretty, pretty guilty of it too.
I don't openly share my feelings
with anybody.
Um... Maybe my wife, you know,
I-I'll talk to her.
But my other guy friends, I'm not gonna
tell them that I'm feeling sad
or anything like that,
because then I'll be a little p*ssy.
[Pat] It's gone down through the ages.
Men aren't supposed to be weak.
They're supposed to be the strong ones.
They're supposed to be the ones
that, um, are taking care of everything.
[Chris] It becomes an abyss.
And you're expected
to pull yourself from the pit
when you feel like you can talk
to nobody about it.
[Danny] How are we even supposed
to entertain the idea of counseling?
I mean, that-that's just... it's a foreign...
It doesn't even make sense.
It doesn't even register.
Taking the time to see a counselor,
like, I don't even have time
to go see the dentist.
Like, I mean...
[tools clatter]
...if the truck's broken,
I know exactly what it takes to fix it.
If I'm having issues inside,
I don't even know where to begin.
And in Beebo's situation,
I think for him to seek help, it would be...
[inhales deeply]
He would think of it in terms of,
"Am I man enough?"
And also, "How are the people
that depend on me gonna look at me
if I'm showing this kind of, you know...
if-if I'm having these kinds of problems."
Come on.
[sighs] Go ahead and use that
for your knees.
Okay. Yeah.
[wrench grinding]
[softly] Go ahead,
finish getting that off with your finger.
[grinding continues]
[Danny] When you get pushed
and pushed and pushed,
and you bottle it up
and bottle it up long enough,
it's... it just becomes a cycle.
[Richard] I just imagine
all the phone calls
going on right now.
Like, I don't know who's gotta talk to who
and do this, and figure out that,
But it's just funny how little...
- [engine starts]
- ...conversation's going on with us,
you know?
[Andrew] Well, there are
some phone calls being made
and we're just trying to
figure out the best option.
Really, we just want you
to turn back around
- so we can stay in contact with you.
- [engine revving]
[Richard] How come?
[Bill] Because we care.
[Andrew] It's true.
[Mary] We didn't see the signs, and I...
I think that part of that was
because every time he would see us,
it was a little whirlwind weekend,
and it was just fun.
And that's one of the things
that frustrates me the most
is that I did not know
that he was depressed.
I...
And that makes me sad
that maybe I missed the signs.
[Richard] I got a lot of people
that care about me,
and
it's going to disappoint them
to hear that I did this.
Um...
I would like to apologize
to each and every one of them.
Just a broken guy.
Got a few screws loose, I guess.
Never really knew it until now.
Um...
It's, you know--
Man, and you know,
the sights went by so fast.
I was thinking
I'm gonna have this moment of serenity.
You know, be able to
just take all in all the sights, and--
there's a lot of pretty stuff, but
I think they're prettier
in a different context.
I really wish he would have told me
he felt that way before.
[Colleen] The pilot, Rich is getting
kind of emotional right now.
[Andrew] Well, Rich, you know
you seem to get--
you seem like
you're getting down on yourself
but there's no need to do that.
I mean, we're--
we all get down on ourselves a little bit,
but,
there's no need to get upset
with ourselves about it, you know.
[Andreas] Being at Horizon, it just
became too much, so I had to leave.
But I saw Richard
a week before he took that plane.
I said,
"Why don't you come over to my job?"
He says, "Yeah,
but I really am trying to move up.
I really do. I don't want to leave."
I said, "Okay. Well,
if you ever want to, let me know."
Why didn't I talk to him
a little bit longer?
Was that a chance for me to...
to find out what's really going on?
"Are you okay?"
[plane engine roaring]
[poignant music playing]
[Richard]
I think this is part of the reason
why I decided to do something so extreme,
is just 'cause
everything is always business
all the time.
Even when you know,
you're hanging out with people,
it's just business.
Um...
I just--
You know, those real close personal
moments are just so few and far between.
Um...
Yeah, it sucks.
So, like, I wouldn't mind just
sh**ting the sh*t with you guys,
but it's all business, you know.
[Andrew] Yeah, Rich.
We'd like to talk to you too.
So, you've made a turn--
a right turn to the west now,
so if you could just stop your turn
and then keep it nice and level there
and then we can start talking.
Maybe we can set up something,
maybe a place for you to land.
[Richard]
Yeah, I don't think I'm going to land it.
Like,
in a safe, safe kind of manner.
Think I'm gonna try to do a barrel roll,
and if that goes good I'll just go
nose down and call it a night.
[Andrew] Well, no need to do that.
If you could just
start a turn to the right,
and then I'll tell you
when to stop turning,
and then you can keep it level from there.
[Richard] Alright.
Well, I'll keep climbing a little bit.
I feel like I need to be--
What do you think? Like 5,000 feet
at least to be able to pull
this barrel roll off?
[Bill] Really,
there's no safe altitude for that.
I wouldn't even try it.
You're gonna hurt somebody on the ground.
[Andrew] And Rich,
you said you didn't want
to hurt anybody on the ground.
And we don't want see you get hurt either.
[Bill] Rich, you'd be a hero if you could
pull off a landing.
[Richard] No, I would just be
a public nuisance
that goes to jail for the rest of my life.
[chuckles]
So.
I've been kind of weighing my options
back and forth,
and though I would love
three squares a day
and just reading books the whole time
and I know I'd get some letters
from my loved ones.
I got a bunch of them out there.
[engine roaring]
[Richard] Um...
You know, it just wouldn't be the best,
you know?
[Andrew] You've got a wife.
[Richard] Oh, you Facebook-stalked me?
[snickers]
I... I still can't believe
he chose the path he chose.
I didn't see it.
[engine roaring]
[poignant music playing]
[onlooker 1] He's turning.
He's completely sideways.
He's going all the way. He's upside down.
- Oh, my God!
- [onlooker 2] Sh...
- [onlooker 1] Holy sh*t! Holy sh*t, man!
- [onlookers clamor]
[onlooker 1] Holy sh*t! Holy sh*t!
- [alarms blaring]
- [automated voice] Pull up. Pull up.
- [music, alarms end]
- [interference screeching]
["Outro" playing]
[onlooker 1] Oh, my God.
I'm gonna have a heart attack. [chuckles]
- Oh, my God. Is he okay? He's okay.
- [onlookers clamor]
[onlooker 1] He's okay!
He's okay, he's okay, he's okay.
[ROCK 42]
TOI-1 just completed a barrel roll.
Current altitude, 2,000 feet.
[Andrew]
ROCK 42, confirm he did a barrel roll.
[ROCK 42] Affirm, he cleared
the surface of the water
by approximately 10 feet.
[Colleen] He did it.
He completed the barrel roll.
[Richard]
Hey, is that my jet pilot finally?
Pilots contacted me and said that that
plane should never have done what it did.
That plane was just not meant
to do those things.
[Phil] My brother is this guy,
never flown a plane in his life,
takes off, flies around,
and then does a freaking barrel roll
and doesn't crash land it.
It's pretty impressive.
I mean, the kid had unlimited potential.
I feel like if he would have, uh,
just known all the potential
he had inside him,
instead of whatever it was that made him
feel like he wasn't good enough,
then, who knows? He...
He could have been
whatever he wanted to be.
[Bill]
Alright, Rich, this is Captain Bill.
Congratulations, you did that.
Now let's try to land that airplane safely
and not hurt anybody on the ground.
[Andrew] Western. Headquarters.
[jet engine roaring]
[air traffic controller] Western.
[Andrew] Have ROCK ask the altitude again.
Confirm altitude.
[air traffic controller]
ROCK has him at 2,000.
[Andrew] Thank you.
[solemn music playing]
[Colleen] All right, ROCK is trying to
talk him into landing the airplane now.
[Richard] All right. Ah, damn it.
I don't know. Man, I don't know!
I don't want to.
I was kind of hoping that was
going to be it, you know?
[poignant music playing]
[ROCK 41] Hey, Rich,
how much fuel you got left on there?
[Richard] Uh...
Over 500, like 550.
[ROCK 41] Okay.
[Colleen] So at 550 pounds of fuel,
that's about five minutes of flight time.
[scoreboard clock ticking]
It's decision-making time
for the fighter pilots.
[Colleen] DEN. I don't know
how familiar you are with this area,
but basically we have,
a lot of islands
and a lot of inlets of water.
So, the fighters
will have opportunities
where he's over with the water a lot.
But, there's all kinds of houses
on all the edges of the water.
So, they're not really wide waterways,
they're kind of narrow.
So, their opportunity,
references the amount of fuel that he has.
Just kind of giving you a heads up.
[ticking continues]
[ticking ends]
[melancholy music playing]
[Colleen] He's over Ketron Island. K-E-D-
K-E-T-R-O-N Island.
He's right next to Ketron Island.
K-E-T-R-O-N.
And a report from a local
says about thirty people
live on the island.
[ticking resumes]
[ominous music playing]
[Andrew] Rich, you still there?
[Richard] Yeah, not for long.
I feel like one of my engines
is going out or something.
[engine straining]
[children giggling, shrieking]
[ticking continues]
[ticking continues]
[Andrew] Okay, Rich, if you could,
you just want to keep that plane
right over the water?
Maybe keep the aircraft nice and low?
Can you do that?
41 can you just verify that...
that he's still over the water there?
[Bill] Hey Rich, this is Captain Bill.
How's it going up there?
[Ken] All right, just got a report on
another phone that ROCK 41 reports splash.
[Colleen] Okay.
[Ken] And target fade at 0348.
Target fade.
[air traffic controller] Western.
[Colleen] Colleen here.
Okay, Jason. Did you hear that?
[Jason] Yes.
[buzzer sounds]
[Colleen] All right,
ROCK 42 reported that he hit the island.
[headphones clatter]
Uh...
[static interference]
That's it?
Well, I mean... [stammers]
There was no more... There wasn't
any other transmissions from...
from Beebo from the c*ck?
It was just kinda...
[softly] Oh.
[clicks tongue]
[inhales shakily]
[exhales deeply]
I just hope that...
It looked like
it was probably instantaneous.
I mean, he didn't feel any pain.
Hope he wasn't scared.
[reverent music playing]
[Colleen] After the entire ordeal
was over, Andrew was up off position.
I just walked out there,
and he was in the hallway.
I went to go talk to him.
I looked at him,
and I could just see it in his face.
That he was devastated.
And we cried.
And I said, "I'm sorry.
I needed you t-t-to do that.
You were the one I needed.
Please don't go home alone." [sobs]
"Don't go home.
Stay here with your friends,
call your parents, call someone.
Don't go home. Don't be alone now."
[car engine roaring]
[Karen] I think he was still in the air
when Alaska Air
put me on the next flight out.
So I think when I got on the plane
to come down to Seattle... [sniffles]
...I think they knew,
but they didn't tell me,
that the plane had gone down.
I remember telling Hannah that
we are family, and we'll always be family.
But we just lost touch. [inhales shakily]
[sobbing] And I just have to accept
that maybe seeing me hurts too much.
[dark ambient music playing]
I'm just so sad.
People say that you have visions or dreams
or whatever of your lost loved one.
And I don't... [stammering] I haven't
received any kind of... any visit from him.
[music continues]
You know, if it's a feather
blowing in the wind,
or if it's a rock
hitting me on the head, doesn't matter.
I just want to know that he's okay.
[news anchor 1] This is a look
at the crash scene.
[news anchor 2] We take another look
at that wild video.
An airline employee
steals a passenger plane
from Seattle's Sea-Tac Airport.
I can't get the story out of my head.
[new anchor 3] Initially,
they didn't know the man's motives.
[news anchors overlapping]
[Karen] I was hoping that the press
would just leave me alone.
[overlapping continues]
[Karen] I had no interest
in talking to the press.
I had no interest
in sharing my story with anybody.
I just didn't understand
the obsession with this.
I didn't understand it.
To me, this was a horrible death.
[news anchor 4]
Fighter jets were sent out.
There were concerns
this could be terror related.
Federal investigators are hoping
the recovery of those black boxes
give them a better understanding into
what motivated this airline ground worker
to steal this plane and fly off
in the first place.
It was pretty clear, like,
this was gonna get controversial.
[computer mouse clicking]
My family, my parents,
they say, "Don't watch it.
You can't watch it.
It's gonna drive you nuts."
[Chris] It was sensationalized
and politicized almost exclusively
just to argue preexisting,
um, political points
that were very extreme.
- [heartbeat thumping rhythmically]
- [Chris] The far-left demonized him.
'Cause this just seems to be
another angry white man, right?
As simple as that. [stammers]
Like, lacking a bunch
of this sophistication.
And then, like, equally wrong
on the right side.
They're like, "Look at this hero
for white nationals."
Like, "Dude, that's not even close
to being right!"
[ominous music playing]
[Andreas] If he was a t*rror1st,
why did he not fly into something?
Why did he not try to harm others?
Why did he not take the plane
when there was people there?
There's this quote in there,
"I think he feels the pain
of an entire race being exterminated
but can't quite
articulate his depression."
[snickering] That's so stupid.
That is the most incorrect diagnosis
of what he was thinking and feeling.
[Danny] These T-shirts here
from a neo-n*zi, white nationalist outfit
uses my brother as, you know,
kind of a poster child to sell merchandise
that supports their ridiculous beliefs.
It's bad enough
to take somebody's suicide and...
[chuckles] ...make T-shirts
and monetize it, um,
but to be somebody
that outside of his beliefs is just gross.
Traditional conservatives, we don't
believe that America should be only white.
Beebo was not about any of that.
He would be absolutely disgusted.
Here's this incredibly sad event
that people made him out
to be something he wasn't.
Beebo was not part of your agenda.
[Andreas] He said why he was doing
what he was doing.
He named off work stuff.
[Chris]
But very shortly after all of that,
there was a lot of these memes
that were popping up on social media.
[Phil] I noticed it went viral
when I saw a meme
with, uh, him doing the loop the loop
over the Sound.
It said, "#SkyKing."
And I kinda looked into it a little bit,
like, "What are they talking about,
Sky King?"
Something about it had resonated
really deeply with, uh, a group of people.
[Phil] To me,
the whole Sky King thing is, uh...
It's like Beebo giving a big "f*ck you"
to corporate America.
I feel like
that was definitely part of him.
[Chris] There was this person
who felt like he was this cog
in this giant machine.
And this was his last stand
to kind of finally break free
from being what they described online
as this "wage sl*ve."
In many ways, this could be me, right?
[YouTuber] This video is in memory
of the Sky King: Richard "Beebo" Russell.
The last thing I want to do
is glorify suicide,
and that's the opposite
of what I'm here to do on the Internet.
But for some reason, this story really
resonated with me and a lot of people.
He was just a regular guy...
[melancholy music playing]
[Karen] I got letters and texts
from people all over the world.
From South America to Europe to India,
to, uh, everywhere
about how they were gonna,
um, commit suicide,
but they read his story, and they didn't.
[sniffles]
[Richard on recording]
I got a lot of people that care about me,
and, uh, it's gonna disappoint them
to... to hear that I did this.
Um, I would like to apologize
to each and every one of them.
Um... [sighs] ...just a broken guy.
Got a few screws loose, I guess.
Never really knew it...
[clears throat] ...till now.
I got hundreds of emails
from ground-service workers,
from flight crews,
from, um, ex-pilots who...
[sighing, stuttering] Basically... [sighs]
"Your brother's a rock star.
He said what we've all been saying."
[sniffles] Um, "It's how we all feel."
And they see him as somebody
that was kinda sticking up
for those that are put to the wayside...
[sobbing] ...and thought of as "ramp rat."
[sobs]
[sniffles]
They, uh... They internalize how they feel.
[swallows] And, uh... [blusters]
He let that cat out of the bag.
And, you know, for some of them,
that's all they needed to hear was,
they weren't the only ones
that felt that way about their job.
[sniffles]
[clamoring]
[pensive music playing]
[whoops]
[Pat] The younger generations
are losing what we had.
We all believed in the American dream.
The kids today, they even question,
"What is the American dream?"
- [clamoring continues]
- [whoops]
[Pat] My nephew, his generation,
I think they were just caught
right there in the middle
as everything was transitioning.
[crowd members whoop]
[Pat] Even though
it's the economy changing,
people are going to think, because they
can't attain it, that it's their fault.
[whooping continues]
[children giggling]
- [Danny] Keep going, keep going.
- [shrieks]
[crowd cheering]
[ominous music playing]
[seagull calling]
[pensive music playing]
[Karen] There's a sorrow
that is always there.
If I could talk to Beebo right now,
I'd slap him upside the head and go,
"What the hell were you thinking?"
[chuckles]
[chuckling] I really would. I...
[normal] You know, "Beebo, don't."
You know, "Don't.
Talk to me.
Just talk to me.
There's nothing that we cannot solve.
Just talk to me."
- [producer] Did he disappoint you?
- Oh, God, no. [sniffles]
He was the best.
He never disappointed me. Ever. He was...
[whimpers] I was so proud of him.
[music continues]
[sobs]
[dolorous string music playing]
Just saw this video.
Ugh, brought me to tears.
This video is in memory of the Sky King:
Richard Beebo Russell.
I just went down a rabbit hole
on Sky King,
and, oh, my God, the audio...
I hope maybe Sky King
and this message helps you too.
There is almost a poetry to someone who
has spent their entire career, at least...
[speaking Spanish]
[speaking Spanish]
If you or someone you know is struggling,
please seek professional help.
So instead of playing by the rules,
he had nothing to lose.
He was gonna break it
and show the world what he was capable of.
He performed unbelievable aerial stunts,
including a barrel roll.
A video I'd like you to watch of him
talking to the air traffic controller...
...of mental health and the different ways
people might reach out for help.
I've listened to the audio of the Sky King
a few times now, and it really does...
I just watched another Sky King video, so...
[smacks lips] ...if you need me...
There are a lot of men out there
that are carrying so many burdens.
Man, I'm telling you that might be some of
the most important audio I've ever heard.
As the voice recordings show,
Beebo's intent was not to harm anyone.
He was right in saying that there are
so many people who have loved him.
You know, do your barrel roll.
Do your barrel roll.
[sobs] Land safely.
[sobs]
[music ends]
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#Skyking (2026)
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