After four years, security camera footage has been released that shows how Richard Russell stole a turboprop airliner from SeaTac airport. He flew around for a while having a grand old time, scaring the pants off air traffic control, before intentionally crashing the plane on an island.
What he did was criminal and potentially could have resulted in many, many deaths. But it seems he didn’t want to kill anyone but himself, and the way he went out, with such apparent joy both in the way he flew and the things he said, has made him something of a hero to many. There was clearly something wrong with the man (some thinking that he was dain bramaged from repeated concussions during high school football)… but he went out on his own terms, I suppose. And these days… that’s about the most a lot of people can even dream of hoping for.