An airline mechanic stole an empty commercial plane before crashing on a nearby island after being pursued by F-15 fighter jets.
Authorities said the man stole a 76-seater Horizon Air turboprop before taking off from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday night.
Witnesses reported seeing the plane doing loop-the-loops and barrel rolls as air traffic controllers encouraged the man to land.
A large plume of smoke and fiery flames were seen after the plane crashed south of Ketron Island. It is unclear if the man survived.
Preliminary information suggests the crash occurred because the 29-year-old mechanic was "doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills," the Pierce County Sheriff's Department said.
Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, said on Twitter the man was suicidal and there was no connection to terrorism.
He added that F-15 aircraft scrambled out of Portland, Oregon, were in the air "within a few minutes" and the pilots kept "people on the ground safe."
The sheriff's department said they were working to conduct a background investigation on the Pierce County resident, whose name was not immediately released.
Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said the man "did something foolish and may well have paid with his life."
The man could be heard on audio recordings telling air traffic controllers that he is "just a broken guy."
An air traffic controller called the man "Rich," and tried to convince the man to land the plane.
"There is a runway just off to your right side in about a mile," the controller says, referring to an airfield at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
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"Oh man. Those guys will rough me up if I try and land there," the man responded, later adding "This is probably jail time for life, huh?"
Later the man said: "I've got a lot of people that care about me. It's going to disappoint them to hear that I did this... just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess."
Flights out of Sea-Tac, the largest commercial airport in the Pacific Northwest, were temporarily grounded as the incident unfolded.
Royal King told The Seattle Times he was photographing a wedding when he saw the low-flying turboprop being chased by two F-15s. He said he didn't see the crash but saw smoke.
"It was unfathomable, it was something out of a movie," he told the newspaper. "The smoke lingered. You could still hear the F-15s, which were flying low."
Horizon Air is part of Alaska Air Group and flies shorter routes throughout the US West.
"Our hearts are with the family of the individual aboard, along with all of our Alaska Air and Horizon Air employees," Horizon Air Chief Operating Officer Constance von Muehlen said in a video posted on Twitter.
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