Investigators are piecing together how an airline ground agent stole an empty commercial airplane, took off from Sea-Tac International Airport and crashed into a small island in the Puget Sound after being chased by military jets that were quickly scrambled to intercept the aircraft.
Two F-15 aircraft were scrambled from Portland and pursued the plane but authorities say they didn’t fire on it before it crashed on tiny Ketron Island, southwest of Tacoma, Washington. Video showed fiery flames amid trees on the island, which is sparsely populated and only accessible by ferry. No structures on the ground were damaged by the plane, which sparked a small wildfire.
Robert Mark is a commercial pilot, Senior Editor for Flying magazine and the publisher of Jetwhine.com. He joined Dan and Amy with reaction to the airport worker who stole an airplane: