WASHINGTON – In the worlds’s costliest suicide, a US airline employeestole an Alaska Airlines plane without any passengers on it, performed anupside-down aerial loop, and crashed into an island in Washington state.
A man belived to be in his 30s, had stolen the Alaska Airlines plane whichcosts around Rs4 billion before performing dangerous maneuvers in the skybefore crashing on an island about an hour later.
The 76-seat airliner was captured on video doing large loops and otherrisky air stunts during its hour-long flight.
The man could be heard on audio recordings telling air traffic controllershe is “just a broken guy”.
The ground services worker, identified by authorities as a 29-year-oldresident of Pierce County in Washington state, died.
The Pierce County Sheriff s Department said the suspect was a “suicidalmale” who “acted alone” and that this was “not a terrorist incident.”
“Most terrorists don t do loops over the water,” Pierce County Sheriff PaulPastor said. “This might have been a joyride gone terribly wrong.”
Witnesses reported seeing the plane being chased by military aircraft nearthe airport. “Pilots kept plane out of harm s way and people on groundsafe”.