WASHINGTON – Two military F-15 jets were scrambled late Friday after a‘suicidal’ airline worker stole and later crashed an empty passenger planefrom the Seattle-Tacoma airport, local officials said.
Local authorities quickly ruled out terrorism as a motive for the incident,and said the F-15s “were not involved in the crash.”
An airline employee “conducted an unauthorised takeoff” of an airplanecarrying no passengers at the major airport in the northwestern US state ofWashington, airport officials said on Twitter.
The aircraft “crashed in south Puget Sound,” Sea-Tac Airport said, addingthat normal operations at the transport hub had resumed after a pause.
“This is not a terrorist incident. Confirmed info… this is a single suicidemale. We know who he is. No others involved,” the Pierce County Sheriffsaid.
The suspect was identified as a 29-year-old Pierce County resident who“acted alone,” the sheriff’s office added, confirming that there were “nopassengers on the plane” when it crashed.
Video taken by a bystander showed the airplane making a loop, then flyinglow over a body of water.
Alaska Airlines on Twitter said the airplane was a turboprop Q400 airplanebelonging to its sister carrier Horizon Air.
Local media described the man who stole the plane as a mechanic.