‘Suicidal’ mechanic crashes plane from Seattle airport

A “suicidal” mechanic stole an empty passenger plane from the Seattle-Tacoma airport late Friday, took it for a brief flight that included an aerial loop, then crashed it in an incident officials said was unrelated to terrorism.

Two military F-15s were scrambled to chase the stolen plane, but “were not involved in the crash,” local officials said.

Video taken by a bystander showed the passenger airplane making an unlikely upside-down loop, and then flying low over Puget Sound before crashing into the sparsely populated Ketron Island in the north-western US state of Washington.

The crash sparked a fire in the dense forest. Flames lit up the night as they spread from the burning wreckage to nearby trees.

Officials said there were no victims on the ground. The stolen plane was a twin-engine turboprop Q400 airplane belonging to its sister carrier Horizon Air, Alaska Airlines said on Twitter. It normally carries 76 passengers.