A man who stole a plane from Sea-Tac airport used an airport tow tractor to turn the airplane around for takeoff, but when it came to flying the commercial aircraft Richard Russell may have been self-taught thanks to readily available flight simulator software.
Flight simulators, like Microsoft Flight Simulator X, are like having a flight instructor in your living room.
“This teaches you all the procedures in a step by step manner, just like you would in real life, on how to start the plane,” said Nate Johnson, a licensed pilot who flies small planes.
High quality simulator software is available to the public for about a $100, and that may have been what Russell was talking about in reply to air traffic controllers’ questions about whether he needed help from a pilot to fly the plane.
“I mean I don't need that much help,” Russell told air traffic control from the cockpit. “I played some video games before.”
Russell even would have been able to perfect his aerial stunts.
“Just by trial and error,” Johnson said. “If you push the reset button you leave the airport and you learn you weren't going fast enough at the beginning of the loop. Now you go a bit faster at the start of the loop, and then you complete the loop.”
Should this kind of software – with this level of detail – be available to the public?
Concerns were raised after it was reported the 9/11 hijackers used flight simulators, and the simulators are much more sophisticated now. A spokesperson for Microsoft in Redmond said the game maker has “nothing to share on the matter.”
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Johnson says it's a one-of-a-kind training tool that shouldn't be restricted.
“Had I learned the same information in a classroom setting or a flight school setting, it would have cost me tens of thousands of dollars more,” he said.
