The suic*dal airport worker who hijacked and crashed a plane : Richard Russell, a 29-year-old Horizon Air employee, hijacked an empty 76-seat plane from the maintenance area where he worked at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He took off and flew around as an air traffic controller calmly tried to reason with him until he crashed into a small island in the Puget Sound in Washington. Audio of the exchange shows just how collected the controller, who has not been identified, remained during the ordeal as Russell told him he 'didn't want to hurt anyone' and apologized to his family for what he was about to do. He said: '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.' Russell then said before he crashed: '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,' according to a recording of his conversation with the controller. He said flying was a 'blast' and that he didn't need much help: 'I've played some video games before.' 'You think if I land this successfully Alaska will give me a job as a pilot?' he joked. He also told the controller he 'wasn't really planning on landing' the aircraft, and he described himself as 'just a broken guy.' Authorities sent fighter jets to escort him, and the controller repeatedly tried to direct him to runways. But the plane slammed into tiny Ketron Island, a sparsely populated island southwest of Tacoma. “He was a faithful husband, a loving son, and a good friend, he was loved by everyone because he was kind and gentle to each person he met. As the voice recording shows, Richard’s intent was not to harm anyone and he was right in saying that there are so many people who loved him.” - @jorr1t