It made national news in August when a stolen plane crashed on a small island in Puget Sound. A couple of slightly lesser-known facts are that it crashed uncomfortably close to a cabin that happens to be owned by a safety professional, and a former coworker of the man who crashed the plane said there were unsafe conditions in their workplace.
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On Friday, August 10, 2018, a 29-year-old Horizon Air ground crew employee named Richard Russell stole a Q400 turboprop plane and later crashed it on Ketron Island (you can read more details on the incident and its security implications here on our sister publication the Total Security Daily Advisor). While Ketron Island is sparsely populated and accessible only by boat, the aircraft narrowly missed one of the few cabins on the island—where a family was relaxing that particular Friday evening.
And as you watch this King5 News interview with Steve Scheurich, owner of the cabin, you’ll notice that he is (somewhat ironically) a safety professional. Scheurich is Chief Operations Officer at Western Safety Products, Inc. based in Seattle, Washington, and while his recently purchased island retreat was “supposed to be the most quiet place in the world,” he notes that “Now things have changed.” He had only owned the property for about three months at the time of the incident, and the plane crashed a mere 200 yards away.
An Unsafe Work Environment?
While national news coverage included some possible motives for Russell’s actions, including depression and frustration with poor pay at his job, further reporting following the plane crash also mentioned another possible source of discontent for Horizon Air employees: An unsafe work environment.
KIRO 7 interviewed Russell’s friend and former coworker Robert Reeves, who described Russell as a hard worker who was upset at the poor wages he was paid. However, Reeves also revealed that he left Horizon not just because their employees are underpaid, but also because they are dangerously overworked.
“The reason I left is in February of 2016 they were short staffed and they had me run three planes in the same time,” Reeves is quoted as saying. “That’s just not safe.”
Alaska Airlines is the parent company of Horizon Air and would not comment on the various wage and safety claims.