Of Stolen Turboprops and Troubled Souls

The late-summer appeal of turboprops to distressed, 29-year-old, non-pilot, airport employees is vexing. On 10 August 2018, Richard Russell—a 29-year-old, Horizon Airlines ground service agent whose pilot experience comprised solely home-computer flight-simulator games—stole one of his employer’s Bombardier Dash-8 Q400s from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).

Russell flew the 67,000-pound machine haphazardly around the Puget Sound region before intentionally crashing it into sparsely populated Ketron Island, thereby ending his life. Over the course of his protracted and mournful radio communications with Seattle air traffic controllers, Russell described himself as a "… broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess."

On 03 September 2022, Cory Wayne Patterson—a 29-year-old, long-time employee of Tupelo Aviation, an FBO and flight-school on Mississippi’s Tupelo Regional Airport (TUP)—stole a 1987 King Air C-90A. Once aloft, Patterson called 911 and threatened to crash the airplane into a nearby Walmart store.

That Patterson, who is not a licensed pilot and has no documented familiarity with Beechcraft’s King Air series airplanes, managed to start the C-90A and get it airborne is truly surprising; that he crashed the aircraft into a soybean field forty-miles north of Tupelo is not. That Patterson survived the incident and was taken safely into custody with little damage to anything except the airplane and a few bushels of soybeans—is something of a miracle.

During a post-incident press briefing, Tupelo police chief John Quaka disclosed that Patterson—as he flew erratically over the city at around 1,300-feet MSL—had been in contact with police negotiators who prevailed upon him to forgo his plan to smite the local Walmart, and land the King Air at Tupelo Regional. Chief Quaka stated also that Patterson had posted a farewell message on Facebook as the plane approached fuel-exhaustion. Subject message read: “Sorry everyone. Never actually wanted to hurt anyone. I love my parents and sister. This isn’t your fault. Goodbye.”

Patterson, who’s been charged with grand larceny and making terrorist threats, has been denied bond by a municipal court judge. Patterson’s public defender argued—albeit futilely—that bond should have been allowed insomuch as his client had no prior criminal history and chose, ultimately, to not crash the aircraft.

After speaking with Patterson’s family, Tupelo mayor Todd Jordan asserted: "I believe that after the initial threat, he did not want to hurt himself, or anyone else, and I believe that we had what you would think would be the best-case scenario. No one was injured. The suspect is now in custody. He will get the help he needs, as far as whatever he's dealing with. I can't thank all these organizations enough to bring him in safely."

FMI: www.ntsb.gov