Family members of a Seattle-Tacoma International Airport ground service agent are reeling days after hearing he crashed an Alaska Airlines plane he hijacked from the airport.

The Mercury News reports 29-year-old Richard Russell took a 76-seat Horizon Air turboprop plane without authorization and began flying around in the area putting innocent lives in danger.

"This is a complete shock to us," the family said in a statement Saturday, August 11, upon discovering it was Russell. "We are devastated by these events, and Jesus is truly the only one holding this family together right now."

Air traffic controllers guided Russell for nearly an hour before the plane crashed on Ketron Island, CNN reported. Local police have already ruled the incident as not an act of terrorism. Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman Ed Troyer made the claim on Twitter.

Authorities state the hijacking was a one-person job; there were no other passengers; the plane was not scheduled for flight, and it appears the stunt was a suicide attempt.

"There is a protocol to not allow anyone singularly to get onboard an aircraft," CNN's David Soucie said. "If you're going to access the aircraft … you make sure that you check with someone else, and that someone else (will confirm) that … you have the right authority to get onto that aircraft."

It is not clear how Russell managed to keep the plane in the air; however, in recordings, he claims he picked up techniques from gaming. 

"I've got a lot of people that care about me, and it's going to disappoint them to hear that I did this," Russell told an air traffic controller. "I would like to apologize to each and every one of them. Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess. Never really knew it until now."

"Nah, I mean, I don't need that much help. I've played some video games before," he added.

Within the hour he was airborne, fighter jets were deployed, attracting a sea of onlookers from below who believed it to be a part of an airshow. 

Russell later crashed on the sparsely populated island near the city of Olympia. The crash caused a minor fire, but no one on the ground was injured, The New York Times reports. 

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