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FBI Completes Investigation into August 2018 Unauthorized Flight from Seattle-Tacoma Airport

Evidence Suggests That the Final Descent to the Ground was Intentional

The FBI has completed its investigation of the unauthorized flight of a Horizon Air Q400 aircraft that occurred on Friday, August 10, 2018, from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington. Evidence collected during the course of the investigation indicates Richard Russell, 28, of Sumner, Washington, piloted the aircraft and that the final descent to the ground was intentional. Extensive investigative activity failed to reveal any additional subject(s) involved in the planning or execution of the unauthorized flight.

Given the death of Russell and his lack of co-conspirators, the FBI will not be pursuing federal charges.

As part of the investigation, the FBI considered information from the National Transportation Safety Board’s review of the aircraft’s flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR).

The FDR data indicated significant sideslip on the airplane during the final minute of flight, but the airplane appears to have remained in control, and the final descent to the ground appears to have been intentional. If the pilot had wanted to avoid impact with the ground, he had time and energy to pull the column back, raise the nose, and initiate a climb. Instead, the column remained in a position forward of neutral and moved further forward about six seconds prior to the end of the FDR data, known to investigators as corresponding with the aircraft crash on Ketron Island in Pierce County, Washington...

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