I have no idea where I was when I heard about the Alaska Airlines hijacking but it is one of the events that has occurred in my lifetime that I will always hold space for.  I will preface this by saying that my family is deeply rooted in the airline industry.  I am writing this post as a standby passenger on an airplane, as it were.  I think misadventures in the airline industry may affect me disproportionately. As such, it is hard for me to know if this event holds the same gravity in the collective consciousness as it does in mine.  The following is a summary of my own understanding of what happened, and may be historically inaccurate.

Years back an Alaska Airlines ramper hijacked (for lack of a more specific word) an unattended, unoccupied aircraft.  He was able to take off (an amazing feat for a non-pilot, methinks!).  His actions did not go unnoticed— he was soon contacted by radio, and before long flanked by military jets.  His intentions were not known.  It turns out he was mentally unwell.  It seems like maybe he could have had suicidal intent, although the event also had the flare of something poorly thought out that could not be dialed back once the dominos started falling.  He did a loop-di-loop in the aircraft to the real surprise of the fighter pilots accompanying him.  He must have known he might die trying.  Something about the silly joy of trying a loop-di-loop coupled with the mental illness that led him to do it really is a lot for me to think about. At the time there was a mother orca that had been in the news.  Her baby had died and she was swimming around the Puget Sound carrying it on her back for days.  The hijacker radioed that he might like to take the aircraft to go see the mother orca.  He was encouraged to land the plane at a nearby military base, but expressed insight that they might rough him up a bit if he were to successfully (and improbably) land safely.  In the end he chose to fly the plane into the earth.