>About 1 hour and 15 minutes after takeoff, Russell died by intentionally crashing the aircraft on lightly populated Ketron Island in Puget Sound.
I suppose it may not count if it was an intentional crash, but who knows if he would've landed it safely if he didn't want to crash it.
Pretty interesting that he managed to pull off maneuvers like that without having any experience flying:
>Near the end of the flight, the aircraft was seen performing a barrel roll over Puget Sound, recovering a mere ten feet (three meters) over the water. A veteran pilot said the maneuver "seemed pretty well executed, without either stalling or pulling the wings off."
>[Horizon Air CEO Gary Beck] said the aerial maneuvers were "incredible" and that he "did not know how [Russell] achieved the experience that he did." During his conversation with air traffic control, Russell said he "[knew] what [he was] doing a little bit" because he had experience playing video games.
While I do not condone the actions of this guy - I have little doubt he could have landed the plane, given the proficiency he has shown. Unfortunately, after landing, life in prison awaited him. In a way, he was tasting the freedom of flight, for the first time, and for the last time. It has a certain poetic touch to it.
Sometimes the ground service people are allowed to move the planes on the ground for repositioning, when no passengers on on board. It's not uncommon for them to at least know how to turn the systems on and move it. And if you know that, takeoff isn't incredibly more difficult. Landing, on the other hand, is more difficult, but that didn't seem to be among his objectives.
fun fact: i was on a flight to seoul out of seatac that left only minutes before that. what a crazy experience to land in incheon to a flurry of texts asking about our safety and arrival.
All by a guy with zero flight experience but also credited playing video games