Airplanes Don’t Have Keys?!

[Kanewpadle]

So if you’ve read the news today, you saw that someone stole an airplane. Flew around for an hour and a half then crashed.

Imagine that. And it never occurred to federal authorities that it was a possibility?

And of course the media is making a big deal over how easy it was.

 

[M29since14]

Just try it and see how easy it is. He was a mechanic and probably had authorization to be places most of us cannot go. As to the keys, yes, airplanes have them - at least General Aviation airplanes that I have been around do.

The news media usually gets its mouth going before it has the facts, or just likes to ignore things like that if it makes the stories more dramatic.

 

[ParadiseRoad]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNz8D0hV8ik[/ame]

 

[soFlaNative]

Sad story.
Don't know how to positive spin a suicide
but thank God he wished harm only upon his self.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Just try it and see how easy it is. He was a mechanic and probably had authorization to be places most of us cannot go. As to the keys, yes, airplanes have them - at least General Aviation airplanes that I have been around do.

The news media usually gets its mouth going before it has the facts, or just likes to ignore things like that if it makes the stories more dramatic.

Large passenger planes don’t have keys. I’ve seen smaller planes such as Cessna that do.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Sad story.
Don't know how to positive spin a suicide
but thank God he wished harm only upon his self.

True. I think he flew over my house just after take off.

 

[hostler]

It's would really suck if someone pulled the key out and threw it out the window mid flight.

 

[Texas Star]

Reportedly, the AF had a couple of F-15's on him pretty quick.

I think the idea was to shoot him down if he turned out to be a terrorist about to ram the plane into homes or businesses.

He crashed in a remote area. The sheriff there said only about 20 people lived nearby.

This ended a lot better than the cases where an airline pilot crashed into an Alp and another dove the plane into the sea, both with many passengers aboard.

 

[Wise_A]

Also an attempted hijacking of a FedEx plane by a suicidal employee. He boarded as a passenger with a guitar case full of hammers and a speargun. His plan was to switch off the cockpit voice recorder, and then use the hammers to murder the flight crew before intentionally crashing the plane, thereby "cashing in" his company life insurance policy to support his daughter.

Obviously, he failed, due to a couple guys on the crew being pretty damn tough hombres. It's actually a pretty incredible story.

Federal Express Flight 705 - Wikipedia

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

This story has a lot more questions than answers, so far. In order to start the two turbine engines he would have needed either a power cart, or an on board APU to provide electricity. I suppose it might be possible to start on battery power alone if he had some knowledge of the electrical system.

Once the engines are running it would have been difficult for one person to taxi without running into anything because his view to the opposite side of the plane would have been obscured.

It seems like ground control would have noticed right away that the plane was not authorized to taxi and would have alerted someone in security right away. They didn’t mentioned how far he had to taxi to the end of the runway, but it probably took a few minutes. Just to get it off the ground and doing a smooth climb out for a non-pilot to me is amazing. He was doing some fancy flying for a first timer.

 

[bullmack]

The plane was parked at the cargo (North) end of SEATAC. Pretty sure he took off to the South which would have been a real short taxi. It was reported today that he took off on the center runway when left is the normal departure runway. Ground was trying unsuccessfully to communicate with him. Also reported that tires were smoking on takeoff due to parking brakes not being disengaged. He must have had some basic knowledge of Dash 8 procedures. I've flown over and boated around Ketron Island many times.

 

[RobertJ.]

Also an attempted hijacking of a FedEx plane by a suicidal employee. He boarded as a passenger with a guitar case full of hammers and a speargun. His plan was to switch off the cockpit voice recorder, and then use the hammers to murder the flight crew before intentionally crashing the plane, thereby "cashing in" his company life insurance policy to support his daughter.

Obviously, he failed, due to a couple guys on the crew being pretty damn tough hombres. It's actually a pretty incredible story.

Federal Express Flight 705 - Wikipedia

I had never heard that story! Wow!

 

[Absalom]

This story has a lot more questions than answers, so far. In order to start the two turbine engines he would have needed either a power cart, or an on board APU to provide electricity. I suppose it might be possible to start on battery power alone if he had some knowledge of the electrical system.

Once the engines are running it would have been difficult for one person to taxi without running into anything because his view to the opposite side of the plane would have been obscured.

It seems like ground control would have noticed right away that the plane was not authorized to taxi and would have alerted someone in security right away. They didn’t mentioned how far he had to taxi to the end of the runway, but it probably took a few minutes. Just to get it off the ground and doing a smooth climb out for a non-pilot to me is amazing. He was doing some fancy flying for a first timer.

Most of these items should not be a problem for someone working for the airline and around this type of plane all the time.

Most turboprops can be started with just an electric starter and don't need an APU or external power.

Taxiing is not a problem unless you're in a taildragger (older aircraft with tail wheel and limited frontal visibility and directional control); you just look out front and keep the nose on the taxiway's centerline or thereabouts with the pedals.

And for take-off, a completely empty aircraft has plenty of surplus power, so even without fancy stuff like take-off flap settings, if you line up with the runway centerline and push the throttles to take-off power, the plane will pretty much start flying by itself when it has reached sufficient speed.

And once you're up, a bit of prior Flight Sim play on your home computer is probably enough to keep you going for a while.

 

[Onomea]

Interesting commentary here from forum members more knowledgeable than I.

 

[chiefbob81]

Flight delays

Can you imagine all the delays due to lost keys?

 

[steveno]

I went to TDY to Scott AFB for C-9A training in 1972. the instructor showed how to extend the stairs , open the door and once in the cockpit the switches to start the APU. that would have taken all of a couple of minutes. then he pointed to the switches that started the engines however he said if you do that you probably get into a LOT of trouble. the problem I see is not actually flying the airplane but just getting it around on flightline as they require a lot more room than you think. I would start digging into whether or not he had taken some flight school training somewhere

 

[Hawker800]

I had never heard that story! Wow!

Full story on YouTube.
YouTube

 

[old 1911 fan]

Tanks don't need keys either!

old 1911 fan

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AcVSEY2DP0[/ame]

 

[vt_shooter]

Imagine sitting in the back of an airliner waiting to go when they say over the PA system "ladies and gentleman, there will be some delay because we can't find the keys to start this thing ..."

That might be why they don't need a key to start 'em.