Suspected Seattle aeroplane thief was traveller, bakery owner
Richard Russell had a monotonous job at the airport moving planes and bags around, but perks of the job included cheap flights
The airline worker who stole an plane from a Seattle airport on a flight that ended in his death once ran a bakery with his wife and enjoyed the benefits that came with his job to travel the world, social media posts showed. Meanwhile, authorities are investigating how the major security breach happened.
Richard Russell, who liked to be called “Beebo”, was a 29-year-old man living in Sumner, Washington, who was born in Key West, Florida, and moved to Wasilla, Alaska, when he was seven years old, according to a webpage he set up for a college communications class.
He has not been officially named by authorities, but his family and multiple media outlets have reported his identity.
Russell worked for Horizon Airlines, a sister carrier of Alaska Airlines, as a ground service agent who helped baggage handlers and was part of Horizon’s tow team, which moved planes around on the tarmac. It was a job that gave him the perk of “being able to fly to Alaska at my leisure”, he wrote on the page.
In a video posted on YouTube last December, Russell shows luggage coming off and being loaded onto aircraft, and describes what the life of a ground service agent can entail.