Airline Employee Steals Empty Plane, Goes on Deadly Joyride; Rep. Chris Collins Suspending Re-Election Campaign
RYAN NOBLES, CNN ANCHOR: And we start this hour with breaking news. An empty commercial airplane stolen by an airline employee; that man taking the plane on an hour-long joy ride with armed military fighter jets chasing after him before nose diving and crashing into the ground. Thank you for joining me. I'm Ryan Nobles in today for Fredricka Whitfield. This alarming story still developing in Seattle. The sheriff's department says the 29-year-old man who stole the plane was a ground service agent for Horizon Air. He took off unauthorized around 8:00 p.m. local time at Seattle's busy international airport and then minutes later the military sent two F-15 jets up to follow it. Then for the next hour, a bizarre story unfolds as the man attempts to do barrel rolls and air traffic controllers calmly try to talk the man down. CNN has those disturbing audio recordings. Listen.</s>JOHN WALDRON, HORIZON AIR EMPLOYEE: I got a lot of people that care about me and it's going to disappoint them to hear that I did this. 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. Hey, you think if I land this successfully, Alaska will give me a job as a pilot?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I think they will give you a job doing anything if you can pull this off.</s>WALDRON: Yes, right. Hey, pilot guy, can this thing do a back flip you think? Try to do a barrel roll. If that goes good, I'll go nose down, call it a night.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's try and land the airplane safely and not hurt anybody on the ground.</s>WALDRON: All right. Damn it. I don't know, man, I don't know. I don't want to. I was kind of hoping that was going to be it, you know?</s>NOBLES: CNN's aviation and government regulation correspondent Rene Marsh joins us now. She's been working this story all morning long with her sources. Shilling to listen to that audio, so calmly that man talking to air traffic control. I mean what do we know about this man and his level of access at that airport?</s>RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: So we know that he is 29 years old. He works for Horizon Airline which is a subsidiary of Alaska Airline. And when you talk about people who are airport workers who have access to secure parts of the airport, he is certainly one of them. You know, he is one of those individuals who has access to an aircraft. As a ground crew, he would, you know, as an aircraft lands or takes off, they would direct them into the proper position. They would handle luggage as well. So he certainly had the clearance and the credentials to be in the most secure parts of the airport. And really when you look at the story, and as unbelievable as it is, I mean we're talking about a major airport like SeaTac --</s>NOBLES: Right.</s>MARSH: - you saw it was bright outside. So the sun is still up and he manages to steal a commercial plane. You know, it really raises several questions. How did he get it from that secure ramp onto the runway and then take off? You can't take off a commercial plane from a commercial airport without getting clearance from air traffic control. Perhaps he ignored their instructions, but they had to know relatively quickly that something was up with this plane. So I suspect that investigators right now, they're looking at all of the video from all aspects of this airport to piece together the time line so that the airlines and even airports can try to figure out, is there something we missed. But I will tell you this is a tough one, because this is what you call that classic insider threat.</s>NOBLES: Right.</s>MARSH: This is not someone -- not someone who walks in off the street -- this is someone who had the credentials to be up close and personal with that aircraft. He took advantage of that access.</s>NOBLES: And obviously there's going to be all kinds of questions that are raised about security going forward. But pretty remarkable that this ended as safely as it did, given how difficult and how scary it could have been.</s>MARSH: Certainly. When we talk about busy airports, there are other aircraft come in, landing on the tarmac. So this could have been a lot worse.</s>NOBLES: Ok. Rene Marsh -- stick around. I know you're going to continue to follow your sources. We'll check back with you in a little bit. And after the plane took off and headed away from the airport, witnesses saw it flying erratically including Nick Junka (ph) who is a former employee of Horizon Airline. Nick joins me now on the phone. Nick -- just tell us your story, your perspective. What exactly did you see when this airplane was up in the air?</s>NICK JUNKA, FORMER HORIZON AIR EMPLOYEE (via telephone): My wife and I were in the back alley. We live in Eatonville. It's about 60 miles south of Seattle. And my wife looked at me because she knew I knew airplanes and said what is up with that airplane. And I looked. I said oh my gosh -- that is a Q400. And that should not even be in this area at all. And she started shooting video. I told her get video. There's possibly 75 people or more in the plane. We have a small municipal airport here in town but not big enough for one of those planes. So it was literally like 300 feet off the ground and it's heading south just straight in line with the main drag here. And it started to turn and go towards Mount Rainier. And it looked like it was going to go down and then he pulled it back up. And it looked like he was going to circle around to land at our airport. So I told my wife, grab my keys and my wallet. I'm heading to the airport. And I had phone in hand and I got halfway to the airport and he turned and headed northwest towards JBLM. At this time there was no fighter jet with this airplane. Not knowing the situation, I was concerned about 75 people that could be on that plane.</s>NOBLES: Right. Incredible. And we later learn he was the only person on board the plane which thankfully was the case in this situation. I want to talk to you a little bit about your background as a ground service agent. You don't need to talk specifically about the individual that was on the plane, but from your perspective, what kind of access would an employee have to an aircraft like this?</s>JUNKA: We are ground service agents, ok. These airlines do a great job at doing security clearances and background checks. We have access to these planes all day long. We secure them. This is the most outlandish thing. I worked with this guy. He was a good guy. It was a couple of years ago, year and a half ago. I would have never dreamed of this individual doing this -- never.</s>NOBLES: Well, I guess that's part of what makes it all remarkable.</s>JUNKA: We've really got to start looking at -- we really got to start looking at mental illness and something -- he even said it himself, he is broken.</s>NOBLES: Yes.</s>JUNKA: How he even got that plane off the ground is astonishing.</s>NOBLES: Let me ask you about that -- Nick. Let me ask you about that. I mean obviously there's a conversation that's going to be had around what you're describing. But just about the scenario itself, having done this line of work for as long as you did, could you have ever even dreamed up a scenario like this? It seems almost impossible.</s>JUNKA: No. I would have never even thought anything like this would ever happen -- ever.</s>NOBLES: Well, talk to me a little bit about the type of security screening that you have to go through before you can even be hired for a job like this. Obviously you have to go --</s>JUNKA: Well Horizon, Horizon --</s>NOBLES: Yes.</s>JUNKA: -- Horizon has their security process. All airlines have a security process. SeaTac airport has their processes they follow. There's cameras -- I mean, you are monitored the whole time when you're there, ok. So how this guy was able to even get the plane off the ground is astonishing. I mean we're all going to be looking at this. And it is a learning lesson. Thank God nobody was injured except for him. But it's a learning lesson. And this has to be a learning lesson. And I don't know what the lesson is. I don't know how -- you know, they're the professionals. But I know they do an amazing job. We have amazing workers. These rampers (ph), they work great, they're all about getting passengers safely on and off. And you know, I don't know the answer to that. You know, if this is just a one off -- and hopefully, you know, they can get the answer of why he did this.</s>NOBLES: Right. Well, Nick Junka, I certainly appreciate your perspective. Obviously we are thankful for the fact this individual didn't appear to be inclined to hurt anyone other than himself. Obviously still, a tragic situation. And I think you're exactly right. There's going to be a ton of questions about what happened here and how that could change protocols going forward. Nick -- thank you so much for your perspective. We really appreciate it. And we're going to continue to follow that breaking story. We have more breaking news this morning though. Indicted New York Congressman Chris Collins has announced he is suspending his campaign for re-election. The Republican representative was charged this week with insider trading. CNN White House reporter Sarah Westwood, I believe, is following the latest developments -- oh, it is actually going to Athena Jones. I'm sorry. Athena -- you've been following the latest information about Chris Collins. Tell us what do we know at this point?</s>ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi -- Ryan. Well, we're just learning in the last hour or so that Representative Collins is now going to be stepping aside. This comes just a few days after he vowed that he would fight these charges. He would continue to work for the citizens of his congressional district New York 27 -- this is in upstate New York, a reliably red district. But let's read you part of the statement that he posted a short while a go. He said, "After extensive discussions with my family and my friends over the last few days, I have decided that it is in the best interest of the constituents of New York 27, the Republican Party, and President Trump's agenda for me to suspend my campaign for re-election to Congress." Now, you talked briefly about what Chris Collins is facing in terms of these charges. He, his son and his son's fiancee's father are facing 13 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and false statements. This involves a pharmaceutical company, an Australian pharmaceutical company that was testing a multiple sclerosis drug. Representative Collins learned while attending the White House congressional picnic in June of 2017 that that drug had failed its drug trial. Now, the indictment does not allege that Representative Collins himself traded on the information but it says that he called his son immediately after learning about this, and that his son, Cameron Collins, passed that information on to his fiancee's father and that those two were able to trade on the information and to save -- or avoid, I should say, more than $768,000 in losses. This is, of course, illegal. When it comes to the ramifications here, we have Representative Collins vowing that he is innocent. He's going to fight these charges that he calls meritless. But now that he is stepping aside, it is not entirely clear what's going to happen to that race outside of Buffalo. As I mentioned, that district is a reliably red district. But it is very difficult to remove a nominee's name from the ballot in the state of New York, this is according to the New York Board of Elections because of various reasons. So it is not entirely clear what is going to happen with that seat. But Collins was the first member of Congress to endorse President Trump. We have not heard any response from the President on this latest news -- Ryan.</s>NOBLES: All right. Athena Jones -- thank you for that update. Representative Chris Collins not seeking re-election after being indicted. Athena -- we appreciate that report. > Still to come -- Charlottesville, Virginia on edge today one year after white nationalists clashed with counter protesters in deadly riots that stunned America. Today, the President is condemning racism and calling for calm as those same white supremacists plan to hold a rally next to the White House this weekend. We'll have a live report coming up.