When a 28-year-old ground service agent with no pilot’s license managed to take off in a commercial aircraft and perform a barrel roll over the Puget Sound in 2018, the world watched.
Now, the story of Richard “Beebo” Russell is coming to screens in “#SkyKing,” a Fifth Season and ABC News-produced feature-length documentary set to premiere April 14 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
The film tells the 70-minute journey that began when Russell, a trusted Horizon Air employee, used his credentials to access a Q400 turboprop in a maintenance area at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. While the incident was a significant security breach that ended in Russell’s death, the documentary aims to look through the eyes of those who knew him best.
For the first time, Russell’s family members are sharing their stories on camera. The film also features never-before-heard air traffic control audio that runs throughout the scenes, as well as the dialogue between Russell and the ground.
“I did kind of a bad thing,” Russell says in the recordings. When a controller asks if he is hijacking the plane, Russell replies, “Uh, yeah..I’m afraid I did.”
The stakes of that afternoon are laid out in the film’s trailer, where a woman’s voice is heard saying, “The only way out where nobody dies is if he lands the plane successfully.”
Despite the gravity of the situation, the audio captures Russell’s detachment as he asks air traffic control, “You think this thing can do a barrel roll?”
The FBI eventually concluded that the crash was a suicide. In the trailer’s final moments, the audio reveals Russell grappling with the weight of his choices.
“I got a lot of people that care about me. It’s gonna disappoint them,” Russell said, later adding, “This is probably, uh… jail time for life, huh?”
In addition to family interviews, the documentary features Colleen, the now-retired air traffic control supervisor who managed the crisis; Chris, Russell’s childhood best friend; and Andreas, a former coworker at Horizon Air.
“#SkyKing” premieres April 14 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
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