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Man steals plane, does loops.

If I understand the situation correctly, this guy was (due to his job) allowed to be on the apron next to the airplanes. Then, it was only a matters of seconds to get on the plane and sit on pilot's seat. So, not much thing Airport Security could do to prevent what happened.
I wonder what ground control was doing as he taxied - did he ask for taxi to a runup area for maintenance etc, or did ground control think they had a lost comms issue? Curious --
 
He was a credentialed ground crew person tasked with moving aircraft via tug, loading and unloading all aspects, not just luggage, and was entitled to be virtually anywhere on the airport grounds in compliance with all current regulations. He towed the airplane from a maintenance area to an inactive runway and got it off the ground. One spokesperson said he had to have the engines synchronized and so known the procedures well enough not just to fire it up, but configure it for take off.
In FSX or XPlane there are Q400 with systems and checklists that are accurate enough to make this possible for a layman.
Possible that might be changed in the near future because our society looks for easy fixes rather than face the real issues. The authorities are still unpacking this one - just found part of the cockpit recorder (so they can hear conversations he may have had with himself or via cell phone) and the flight data recorder. He was able to locate and read his fuel state and headings and seemed to think he could’ve landed if he wanted to. With a ground stop and all that traffic piled up on the ground and in the air that would have been ridiculous. He seemed aware of that by his remarks. I’m most interested in what the people around him might reveal - he came unwound but could it have been a complete surprise?
That would be unusual. Someone had to know his gears were slipping.
 
There's no need to use derogatory terms to describe the people who make sure that our luggage travels with us.

Priller

It may only be a language barrier issue, but "ramp rat" is a very commonly used term, used even amongst themselves, and is in no way "derogatory..."

See: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ramp rat

Further information reported is that he was also certified for tug operations, meaning that he had been trained to start the APU to provide power and hydraulics during tug repositions of the aircraft.
 
I wonder what ground control was doing as he taxied - did he ask for taxi to a runup area for maintenance etc, or did ground control think they had a lost comms issue? Curious --

Honnestly, after they told him he was not allowed to taxi, what else could they have done? Throw a truck across his path, which would have led to the loss of said truck and maybe its driver as well? Fire a TOW missile to destroy the Q400 (not sure this kind of equipment is common on a civilian airport)?

When the man decided to taxi and taxeoff, there was nothing (NOTHING, N-O-T-H-I-N-G) the ground control could have done to prevent him to do so.
 
Conspiracy theorist proclaim that Soviet Mig 21's not F15's shot down the plane. Migs have a solid history of shooting down commercial aircraft. President Trump asked Putin if he did it. Putin said "No, we are Russian not Soviet". Trump tells congress, "I believe him". Sad!

Source: RT
 
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