ABCNews.com(SEATTLE) — The flight data recorder and “components” of the cockpit voice recorder have been recovered from the Horizon Air plane stolen from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and crashed on an island in Puget Sound on Friday night.
National Transportation Safety Board Western Pacific Region Chief Debra Eckrote confirmed the discovery, made on Ketron Island, where the plane crashed after airline employee Richard Russell’s hour-long joyride ended in tragedy.
Eckrote said the recorder was “intact however the outer case was exposed to heat distress.”
The data recorder will be sent Monday to the NTSB lab in Washington, D.C., to be analyzed this week by NTSB and FBI investigators, according to a source.
The FBI reported human remains were found as well. While the assumption is they are the remains of Russell, they have yet to be officially confirmed by the medical examiner.
“While the focus of our investigation thus far has centered on Richard Russell, 29, of Sumner, Washington, the FBI is awaiting the results of a review by the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office,” the FBI said in a statement.
Airline worker who stole plane told air traffic controllers: ‘I don’t want to hurt no one’
The Pierce County sheriff said following the crash there were no passengers on board the plane.
Russell was described as “suicidal” by the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. He worked as a baggage handler at the airport for 3 1/2 years and was married before his death.
“On behalf of the family, we are stunned and heartbroken,” family friend Mike Mathews said in a statement Saturday. “It may seem difficult for those watching at home to believe, but Beebo was a warm, compassionate man. It is impossible to encompass who he was in a press release. He was a faithful husband, a loving son, and a good friend. A childhood friend remarked that Beebo was loved by everyone because he was kind and gentle to each person he met.”
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