Richard Russell is a folk hero to some people – including a few of the wrong ones – but to the loved ones he left behind, he’s just a “peepo.”
In 2018, a 28-year-old Horizon Air ground agent (a subsidiary of Alaska Air) walked into work wearing a “Sky’s the Limits” T-shirt, stole a $33 million plane (a Bombardier Q400), and took off into the skies of the Pacific Northwest. There was just one problem (well, there were several, but let’s start with)… Russell didn’t know how to fly a plane. Or at least how to land one.
After a flight of a few hours (as suicidal as one can be) around mountains and over water, Russell crashed into the side of a sparsely populated island. He did not try to land, but rather Russell preferred death to prison, as a means of escaping the prison of personal depression in which he lived.
Along the way, Russell made some statements to air traffic control that were still in place. One in particular has completely obscured the truth, #SkyKing Director Patricia E. Gillespie tells the story Hollywood ReporterAnd turning the mental health issue into a racial issue.
Read the questions and answers below.
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I either never heard this story or it went in one ear and out the other – what does that say about me? Or maybe about society if it’s not just me?
Do you know what’s interesting? My friends back home – I grew up working class – and my friends back home all know this. My friends from the city, industry, and college—I was really lucky, I was able to go to NYU and do all that—they didn’t know that. And so I think it actually says something about the echo chambers that we all live in, where stories gain traction and where they’re discussed, and what some of us at the top of the economic ladder don’t hear versus those of us who are in the trenches hear.
Is it simply because Bebo is a blue-collar folk hero?
Well, it represents different things to a lot of people. This movie is really trying to emphasize that he was a human man, and although you can use him in all these different contexts — some true and fair, some untrue, some productive, some downright dangerous — ultimately, none of those things truly encompass his humanity. Our documentary attempts to do just that.
I’ve seen some criticism online like: “So he hijacks a plane and commits suicide…and gets a documentary?!?” What is your response to that shot?
I hope they take the time to watch the film because the film works hard to address the fact that suicide is not the end of pain. Transfer your pain to the people who love you most.
The film also — and I hope on some level for people willing to engage with it — highlights the fact that when we get these hot takes, we often miss the deeper story. In this case, people were very quick to sensationalize and politicize and rushed to take a position before they had facts. As a result, you missed a really important story about the classroom and its intersection with mental health. The media handles these stories in a strange way. When we approach these matters with curiosity rather than judgment, a lot of anecdotal stories—and, frankly, facts—emerge.
You mentioned politics. For readers, during his conversation with The Tower, Bebo says he was passed over for a promotion at work because he’s “just a white guy,” so this search for DEI has inspired some hateful rhetoric online. One of Bebo’s brothers also wears a Trump hat throughout your interview with him. But neither of them appear to be racist or hateful.
I think what I hope people take away from the family is that there are people with very diverse political views and life experiences in this film. The kind of dominant narrative going around on social media and in some mainstream media is that these people shouldn’t be able to get along on anything, but they actually have a lot in common when it comes to the realities of the American economy. When it comes to the realities of working life in this country and its intersection with mental health, we have a lot in common. There’s this phrase that comes from my childhood where it says, “Anyone who knows what a sandwich tastes like is my friend,” right? If you’re at this level, weeding out the people the world will tell you you have nothing in common with, you actually have a lot more in common with them than you think.
In terms of mental health, and maybe I’m not right here, but my understanding is that there are two ways someone can “explode”. One is immediate, where the brain turns thoughts beyond recognition, and the other is deterioration over time. What do you think prompted Bebo to make his fatal choices?
You know, I couldn’t diagnose it. The tragedy is that he ended his life and because he didn’t feel like he had the space to discuss what he was feeling, no one will ever be able to. Of course, we all have our opinions or “what-ifs” or “maybe-becauses” – but I don’t think it’s fair to guess. I think the only person who had that answer was him, and it’s a real tragedy that Bebo and people like him would, you know, shuffle this deadly coil without being able to tell anyone exactly what was going on. I think if he had understood how much his death affected the people who loved him, and whom he loved dearly, he would not have done it. I think depression is the monster that hides this truth from you.
Is it fair to say that his suicide was premeditated, as Bebo says he researched how to take off and not land?
I think he had never taken flying lessons and knew how to take off a plane. I think people can infer what they want from that, but again, I’ll never be able to live inside his head. As a director, I try to be really open to the information I receive and not draw any conclusions that have no factual basis or cannot be confirmed. Sadly, the inner part of his mind was not the place I was able to go at all.
Beppo was firm that he wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, but when he finally crashed it wasn’t into a mountain he was orbiting or into the water he’d spent so much time on top of – he crashed into an island, albeit not a densely populated one. Did you think he was trying to land at the last second?
If you look at the– I think it’s the FBI report, maybe it’s the FAA report, I can’t remember. But it says “controlled landing.” He worked at the airport and lived in the area. He knew the terrain, he knew where people lived and where they didn’t live. I infer, but I imagine that if you got to the edge of a sparsely populated island where people don’t live, you would imagine that you would die and die quickly. He also said during the flight that he did not want to drown.
I don’t think you would die from drowning if you crashed into the water with a plane.
But if you don’t know how to fly a plane, who knows? He was running out of gas, he said in the call. Again, I can’t guess what he had in mind, but imagine if you ran out of fuel and didn’t choose where the plane landed? Something really bad could happen. Again, I can’t live in his mind, but I think [crashing into the side of a sparsely populated island] It would be what you would do to try to make sure you didn’t hurt anyone.
There is a card at the end of the document indicating that Bebo’s wife refused to participate. Totally understandable, of course, but did you get a specific explanation from her as to why?
I didn’t, and I don’t think she owes me one. My heart really goes out to her. I think that had to be devastating, and I respect that she didn’t want to comment on it, and I hope the audience respects that. I want to say that there was nothing in our prolific years of research that suggested anything other than that these two people loved each other very much. [and existed in] A wider and incredibly difficult cultural context.
You interviewed his boss, Colin, but did you talk to the FAA tower man, Andrew?
I talked to Andrew a lot. Likewise, it was not – I think both Sha Rick in this story has been through a lot, and it wouldn’t have been right for him to revisit this, to share, but he’s a beautiful, sweet man. Once again, I support his decision not to comment.
Colin was great.
Colin is unbelievable. She’s unbelievable. If you’re in a bad situation in heaven, Colleen is the lady you want running the room.
Those interviewed said or suggested that Bebo’s motive here was to draw attention to the airline paying its workers less than the minimum wage. In your research, was that true? If so, how could they get away with it?
They were actually paying less than Seattle’s minimum wage, and it was legal for them to do so. I really encourage people who have these questions, which I’m happy to hear, to read about the long legal battle over this in Seattle and wherever you live. Be more curious about the lives of the people who work at your airport or who work in service positions around you. There are so many rules that you will be surprised to learn.
Is this specific to the aviation industry?
I think it’s for all employees. And that’s why, at the beginning of our conversation, I was talking about how, even though there are a lot of things that we might really disagree on — like disagree strongly or really — we have to come together and address these things. The more infighting that prevents workers from speaking up, the more unfavorable legislation or court rulings that pay people less, that create difficult work environments, that deprive us of, you know, the kind of fairly comfortable basics of American life.
I had my interviewees listen to the entire conversation between Beebo and air traffic control — or as much as they could — and comment along the way. It is a very effective tool that takes viewers through the story. Was this always the plan?
Thank you so much for asking this, this was baked very early. I thought this was the most responsible way to tell a story about suicide, because I never wanted the audience to lose how much this incident affected these people. How painful it was, it was so painful to listen to some of these people even eight years later. Karen (Bebo’s mother) didn’t want to listen to her at that time, and she respected that decision. I can’t imagine listening to the last 70 minutes of your son’s life. When we premiered it at SXSW I decided to listen to it, and sat down with my husband and me and watched the movie. Obviously, it was very tragic to see her watching this, but it was also – I was so happy that she was able to see herself and this sacrifice that she made to open up her pain to share it with so many people, to see it take shape and see people respond to it.
The device itself is borrowed or inspired, I believe, from the movie The gray man. I’m a huge fan of Werner Herzog, and the film is a masterpiece. It’s about this guy who’s a naturalist, and he films himself interacting with bears, and it ends badly for him. There is this audio tape of the incident in which the bear killed him and his partner, and you see it in the Werner Herzog film. Listen to it, but you no Hearing sound. “No one should ever listen to this,” he says. I remember that being very emotional. So I said, “Well, what if we used these people, and we could hear the sound? And we could see the context of what makes that tear fall down her cheek, or what makes that gasp into her lungs?” What they say in those moments is really powerful, but what’s even more powerful to me is that look on their faces, yes. I hope that people who are suffering, who are thinking, “Maybe it’s time to end it,” or whatever, look at that and think, “I don’t want my mom or my sister to look like this.”
More from our Zoom conversation with Gillespie will be in our magazine on June 11.
