4 ms·

The Sky Thief (2021)

44 points by kevmo314 4y ago

jakzurr 4y ago
This... kind of shocking. Lived near seatac for decades, never read about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Horizon_Air_Q400_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Horizon_Air_Q400_incident
koshergweilo 4y ago
A sad story. I was really hoping that he would figure out how to land.
- nimbius 4y ago
  the sadder part of this story is that absolutely no regulatory or disciplinary action against the airport or airline ever took place. no reforms, no public report, nothing outside a rolling stone obituary. its almost as if the veil of theatricality surrounding airport security was momentarily left to fall on the ground and, since no one in particular was around to see it, it was hastily dusted off and returned to service.
  - icambron 4y ago
    Is that obviously wrong? Seems like almost any action you’d take to prevent this would be a massive overcorrection and ineffective anyway. You’re right, airport security is theater. Adding to it would just more theatrics.
- rendall 4y ago
  It reads like he probably could have, but just didn't want to land.
Hellbanevil 4y ago
https://www.iheart.com/content/2021-07-20-truecrimetuesday-the-sky-thief/ https://www.iheart.com/content/2021-07-20-truecrimetuesday-t... Audio of incident. He played football, and had a lot of concussions. He seemed like a nice guy whom had a loose thought, and acted on it. In the air he seemed odd. At times he wanted to land. Other times he wanted to just fly around. He did a barrel roll. He wanted to see the Orca who pushed it's dead baby around the bay. I was hoping for a good ending.
KennyBlanken 4y ago
> But at SeaTac, many ramp agents scraped by. The airport, which is also a local city jurisdiction, made history by passing the nation’s first $15 minimum wage in 2013. But the law had loopholes, and while the cashier at the Sbarro inside the terminal was making $15, some ramp agents at Horizon were reportedly making as much as $3 an hour less. (Alaska Air did not answer specific questions about its compensation practices.) > Russell didn’t leave a manifesto. But during his ill-fated flight, without an obvious prompt, he told air-traffic control: “Minimum wage. We’ll chalk it up to that.” He added, “Maybe that will grease the gears a little bit with the higher-ups.” Don't exploit people in sensitive jobs. Give them a livable wage, health care (including mental health) and rest. Have an HR department that is explicitly told not to fuck people over and make them desperate. It's a whole lot cheaper than implementing whatever nonsense security procedures these clowns invariably came up with. AI software and more cameras would be my guess.
- gwern 4y ago
  From the rest of the article, it's pretty obvious that minimum wage had nothing to do with it, any more than a desire to see orcas was also the real reason, as opposed to yet another idle talk throwaway done on poor impulse. Which is why they point to TBIs, because one of the hallmarks of TBIs is poor impulse control and directionless anomie.
  - worik 4y ago
    > it's pretty obvious that minimum wage had nothing to do with it, That is not my take on it. I see a poor, board, hard working man who lost his mind a bit with tragic consequence. The minimum wage part, the gross under pay of people who work very hard, is in the "poor".
- astrange 4y ago
  I feel like the claim we should raise wages to prevent crimes comes from the same people that claim all billionaires are criminals, and that these claims conflict. Also, this guy seems like in addition to crashing a plane he could be an unreliable narrator, and his previous jobs would've given him both CTEs and lead poisoning, neither of which are good for prosocial behavior.
trhway 4y ago
you gotta give it to the suits and government bureaucrats (and that is in a post 9/11 world with all its security theater everywhere): >At every level — corporate, airport, and governmental — authorities in this case have emphasized that there were no violations of security procedure, no one to blame, and no clear lapses to reform. SeaTac’s Reiter asserted that “what happened on August 10th was not a breakdown of any existing airport protocols.” TSA, summarizing its undisclosed investigation, “found Horizon Air and SeaTac International Airport to be in compliance with all security requirements.” In the agency’s only on-the-record comment to Rolling Stone, TSA spokeswoman Lorie Dankers underscored: “There were no security violations related to this incident.”
flybrand 4y ago
I don’t believe anything written by Rolling Stone. I just don’t trust them as a source.
- TedShiller 4y ago
  I think you're right https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/hunter-biden-twitter-facebook-election-conspiracy-theories-1077735/ https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/hunter-bid...
- djmips 4y ago
  This incident happened, that part is true.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 4y ago
  On HN, we go by article quality, not site quality. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22article%20quality%22%20%22site%20quality%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... Generic complaints about publications are more or less off topic because they don't pertain to the specific content of the article, which is what's interesting (if anything is).
dang 4y ago
Related: The Sky Thief: Beebo Russell's Last Flight - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27728605 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27728605 - July 2021 (7 comments)

44 points by kevmo314 4y ago

This... kind of shocking. Lived near seatac for decades, never read about it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Horizon_Air_Q400_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Horizon_Air_Q400_incident

koshergweilo 4y ago

A sad story. I was really hoping that he would figure out how to land.

nimbius 4y ago
the sadder part of this story is that absolutely no regulatory or disciplinary action against the airport or airline ever took place. no reforms, no public report, nothing outside a rolling stone obituary. its almost as if the veil of theatricality surrounding airport security was momentarily left to fall on the ground and, since no one in particular was around to see it, it was hastily dusted off and returned to service.
- icambron 4y ago
  Is that obviously wrong? Seems like almost any action you’d take to prevent this would be a massive overcorrection and ineffective anyway. You’re right, airport security is theater. Adding to it would just more theatrics.
rendall 4y ago
It reads like he probably could have, but just didn't want to land.

Hellbanevil 4y ago

https://www.iheart.com/content/2021-07-20-truecrimetuesday-the-sky-thief/ https://www.iheart.com/content/2021-07-20-truecrimetuesday-t... Audio of incident. He played football, and had a lot of concussions. He seemed like a nice guy whom had a loose thought, and acted on it. In the air he seemed odd. At times he wanted to land. Other times he wanted to just fly around. He did a barrel roll. He wanted to see the Orca who pushed it's dead baby around the bay. I was hoping for a good ending.

KennyBlanken 4y ago

> But at SeaTac, many ramp agents scraped by. The airport, which is also a local city jurisdiction, made history by passing the nation’s first $15 minimum wage in 2013. But the law had loopholes, and while the cashier at the Sbarro inside the terminal was making $15, some ramp agents at Horizon were reportedly making as much as $3 an hour less. (Alaska Air did not answer specific questions about its compensation practices.) > Russell didn’t leave a manifesto. But during his ill-fated flight, without an obvious prompt, he told air-traffic control: “Minimum wage. We’ll chalk it up to that.” He added, “Maybe that will grease the gears a little bit with the higher-ups.” Don't exploit people in sensitive jobs. Give them a livable wage, health care (including mental health) and rest. Have an HR department that is explicitly told not to fuck people over and make them desperate. It's a whole lot cheaper than implementing whatever nonsense security procedures these clowns invariably came up with. AI software and more cameras would be my guess.

gwern 4y ago
From the rest of the article, it's pretty obvious that minimum wage had nothing to do with it, any more than a desire to see orcas was also the real reason, as opposed to yet another idle talk throwaway done on poor impulse. Which is why they point to TBIs, because one of the hallmarks of TBIs is poor impulse control and directionless anomie.
- worik 4y ago
  > it's pretty obvious that minimum wage had nothing to do with it, That is not my take on it. I see a poor, board, hard working man who lost his mind a bit with tragic consequence. The minimum wage part, the gross under pay of people who work very hard, is in the "poor".
astrange 4y ago
I feel like the claim we should raise wages to prevent crimes comes from the same people that claim all billionaires are criminals, and that these claims conflict. Also, this guy seems like in addition to crashing a plane he could be an unreliable narrator, and his previous jobs would've given him both CTEs and lead poisoning, neither of which are good for prosocial behavior.

trhway 4y ago

you gotta give it to the suits and government bureaucrats (and that is in a post 9/11 world with all its security theater everywhere): >At every level — corporate, airport, and governmental — authorities in this case have emphasized that there were no violations of security procedure, no one to blame, and no clear lapses to reform. SeaTac’s Reiter asserted that “what happened on August 10th was not a breakdown of any existing airport protocols.” TSA, summarizing its undisclosed investigation, “found Horizon Air and SeaTac International Airport to be in compliance with all security requirements.” In the agency’s only on-the-record comment to Rolling Stone, TSA spokeswoman Lorie Dankers underscored: “There were no security violations related to this incident.”

flybrand 4y ago

I don’t believe anything written by Rolling Stone. I just don’t trust them as a source.

TedShiller 4y ago
I think you're right https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/hunter-biden-twitter-facebook-election-conspiracy-theories-1077735/ https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/hunter-bid...
djmips 4y ago
This incident happened, that part is true.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dang 4y ago
On HN, we go by article quality, not site quality. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22article%20quality%22%20%22site%20quality%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... Generic complaints about publications are more or less off topic because they don't pertain to the specific content of the article, which is what's interesting (if anything is).

dang 4y ago

Related: The Sky Thief: Beebo Russell's Last Flight - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27728605 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27728605 - July 2021 (7 comments)