Airline worker stole plane, performed barrel roll before deadly crash: Inside final moments
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Richard Russell spent his final moments alone, sick and disoriented, cracking jokes and apologizing as he flew a stolen plane he knew wasn’t coming back.
In August 2018, a Horizon Air ground service agent clocked in and took off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in a Bombardier Q400. For over an hour, he spoke with air traffic controllers who urged him to land — before he deliberately crashed on Ketron Island.
The 29-year-old, who went by "Beebo" on social media, is now the subject of a new documentary from ABC News Studios, "#SKYKING." It marks the first time many of Russell’s family members and friends have spoken out publicly. The film includes air traffic control audio from the flight and is based on available investigative records.
"When I heard these recordings, they really struck a chord with me," director Patricia E. Gillespie told Fox News Digital. "[Beebo] just sounded like guys I knew back home, especially when he was talking about his work life, minimum wage and some of the frustrations he felt surrounding employment — and the fact that he couldn’t talk about the tough feelings he was having."
"It bewitched me," Gillespie shared. "I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I really couldn’t get it out of my head."
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As Russell flew over the Olympic Mountains, he made a confession in the recording that Gillespie said still haunts her and his loved ones.
"I got a lot of people that care about me, and it’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this," he said. "I would like to apologize to each and every one of them. [I’m] just a broken guy. Got a few screws loose, I guess. Never really knew it till now."
His last transmission indicated that his fuel reserves were dangerously low. Time had run out.
"Not for long," he said. "I feel like one of my engines is going out or something."
Moments later, the Q400 crashed into the woods, sparking a two-acre fire. The FBI said Russell died of "multiple traumatic injuries."
"There’s also a line where he says he wanted to just talk with these guys, but they’re all business," Gillespie explained. "Those are the things that stood out to me as well. At one point in the recording, he says, ‘If you ask me why I did it, blame it on not making minimum wage, we’ll chalk it up to that. Maybe that’ll grease the gears for the higher-ups.' I have heard that at dinner. Not just from my male friends."
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"He says some more controversial things in that call," said Gillespie. "Particularly, he made this statement where he says, ‘Do you think Alaska [Airlines] will give me a job as a pilot if I land this plane?’ They say, ‘Oh, they’ll give you a job doing anything.’ And he says, ‘Yeah, right, I’m a White guy.’ That became sort of a bellwether that got extremely controversial online. Really unsavory characters, like actual White supremacists, are saying he’s their poster boy, which was completely inaccurate."
"People who are very far to the other end of the spectrum were saying he’s a domestic terrorist hell-bent on destruction, which turned out not to be accurate," she continued. "But when I heard those words, and I saw how they were being taken in context, I had a sense that there was information missing. I didn’t know what that information was going to be, but I knew that I felt really compelled to look into it."
During Gillespie’s sit-downs with loved ones, she learned that Russell, born in the Florida Keys and raised in Wasilla, Alaska, was goofy and deeply religious. He later met Hannah, his future wife, at a Christian youth program. They got married in 2012 and moved to Washington. Together, they opened a bakery.
In a YouTube video posted to his blog, Russell shared photos of his travels and spoke of his job as an airport worker.
"I lift a lot of bags," he said. "Like a lot of bags. So many bags."
But the gig was far from a dream job. While Russell appeared reliable and positive at work, internally, he was feeling unfulfilled in life. His social media posts offered no hint he was quietly suffering.
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"He was not making a statement about feeling oppressed as a White guy," Gillespie emphasized. "It sounds like a statement about things that had been said to him at work. And it’s scary to me that that story rarely got uncovered because the internet machine was so quick to politicize it instead of acting with curiosity and asking how these words ended up coming out of this person."
"I think Beebo’s aunt says it really well when she says something to the effect of, ‘This idea of an American dream — you can provide for your wife, you can have two cars in the driveway, a house, a white picket fence — you can do this on one income. And that’s just not the reality we're living in anymore.’"
"There’s a generation — Beebo’s generation — that can feel like failure when they can’t attain that," Gillespie reflected. "The reality is they’re not failing. The economy is failing in this way, and they have to figure it out. And we don’t talk about these things, frankly. People don’t have an awareness of these social pressures, or in Beebo’s case, the pressure to be a man or a provider. The pressure to be a success."
People who knew Russell told FBI agents and other law enforcement personnel they had no information indicating they knew of Russell’s plans to steal or crash an airplane, The Associated Press reported.
"Contacts with Russell’s employer determined there were no personnel issues," according to records cited by the outlet. "Russell was known as a quiet guy who read a lot. Russell had a few unexcused absences, but nothing considered significant."
Other witnesses told FBI agents Russell "failed to go to work Aug. 3 and had expressed feeling as if he was not living up to what others expected of him," the records show. The witnesses said he went to work Aug. 4 to try to pick up a shift, but the next day he "seemed strange." Loved ones attempted an intervention, The Associated Press reported.
"Russell seemed fine to family members after the intervention, though he was drinking more," the outlet reported based on records. "The week of Aug. 6, Russell seemed fine to family/friends."
Four days later, Russell entered the plane and took off without authorization. The FBI found evidence he had searched flight simulators before the incident.
During Russell’s conversation with air traffic control, he said he didn’t want to hurt anyone. He intentionally kept the plane away from populated areas. However, reports noted that Russell could have inflicted vastly more damage had he chosen to do so. Potential targets included tens of thousands of fans assembling at Safeco Field for a sold-out Pearl Jam concert.
Officials also stressed that the incident posed a serious risk to public safety and exposed vulnerabilities in airport security. Many wondered how, nearly 17 years after the 9/11 attack, someone could simply take a passenger plane from a major U.S. airport without authorization.
Before the plane plunged into the thick forest, Russell performed an acrobatic stunt.
"I think I’m going to try to do a barrel roll, and if that goes good, I’ll go nose down and call it a night," Russell is heard saying from the cockpit.
"The line that broke my heart when I was doing these interviews was when his brother Phil was asked about it," said Gillespie. "He said, ‘He could have been anything he wanted to be.’ This idea that if he’d just believed in himself, if he just believed he was living in an America where guys like him could win, he could have been anything he wanted to be. He could have been a pilot."
The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Russell's death a suicide. Authorities concluded Russell acted alone in deliberately taking the aircraft, an act that could have resulted in significant loss of life.
"Eight years later, his family’s hearts are still very broken," said Gillespie. "You can never get over something like this. Suicide doesn’t end pain. It passes on to your loved ones. But I also think the family wants his story to be a force for good in helping people like him get the help they need so that other families don’t have to go through what they’ve been through."