One Last Joyride

The SeaTac (Seattle-Tacoma International Airport) baggage handler who decided to take an empty Alaskan Airline Horizon Q400 turboprop aircraft for a test ride last Friday said he didn’t need much help flying it because he’d played a few video games.

Now, to the rest of us, that’s a huge step: going from virtual to real world situations is scary at best, and downright terrifying at worst. And yet he handled it fantastically even when he purposely tried to roll it into a potential crash.

Here is the Air Traffic Control conversation in its entirety:

Suicide by Air

Most people, when they decide to leave this world, choose their demise with whatever they can lay their hands on. Most people wouldn’t opt to take a final plane ride, on their own.

But I suspect this is something that he had always wanted to do. But when invited to try to land the plane, he declined to go anywhere that could cause problems for others. The fuel must have been running out, so he chose an island off the Washington coast for his final resting place.

His final words, are quoted here:

“Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess. Never really knew it, until now.”

Rest in Peace, young man.