TACOMA, Wash. _ Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, the FBI and Alaska Airlines went to Ketron Island Saturday to gather evidence from where a Horizon Air employee crashed a stolen airplane from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Debra Eckrote, NTSB regional chief, said investigators will focus on recovering the voice-data and flight-data recorders from the wreckage. They also will work to recover the remains of the 29-year-old man thought to have been the only person on the plane.
Meanwhile, FBI spokeswoman Ayn Dietrich-Williams said the agency "is leading the investigation of Friday night's unauthorized takeoff and crash of a Horizon aircraft."
"We are going to be thorough, which means taking the time needed to scour the area, delve into the background of the individual believed responsible and review every aspect of this incident with all appropriate public and private partners, Dietrich-Williams said.
Alaska Airlines executives said at a news conference at Sea-Tac late Saturday morning that the employee who took the plane was authorized to be both on the tarmac and inside planes, and that no security protocols were violated. His work as a ground agent included handling baggage, tidying airplanes and operating tow vehicles to move aircraft, and he was "fully credentialed and had access to that area legitimately."
"That's their job, to be around these planes," said Brad Tilden, president and CEO of Alaska.
Horizon Air CEO Gary Beck said that to the airline's knowledge the man who took the plane did not have a pilot's license.
The stolen plane was parked in an area called Cargo 1 on the north part of Sea-Tac when it was taken. It appeared that the ground worker used a tow vehicle to rotate the plane 180 degrees on the tarmac before climbing into the cockpit, taxiing to a runway and taking off, Alaska executives said.
The plane was not scheduled to make any other flights Friday night.
The plane left the ground at 7:32 p.m. and air-traffic controllers lost contact with it at 8:47 p.m., Tilden said.
Eckrote said the plane went down in an area covered with heavy brush and trees. The plane was "highly fragmented and the wings are off," she said.
A fire sparked by the crash "is pretty much out," Eckrote said. The Department of Natural Resources said two acres burned.
The sparsely populated island remained closed to ferry traffic Saturday morning.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command said Saturday that it sent two F-15C alert aircraft from Portland to intercept the plane.
"The fighters were directed to fly supersonic to expedite the intercept," NORAD said in a news release.
They intercepted the plane near Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
