LOS ANGELES — It was the unbelievable story that shocked the nation in 2018. Now, that story has been turned into a documentary feature, “#SKYKING.”
When 28-year-old airport worker Richard “Beebo” Russell stole a $33 million plane from SeaTac airport on Aug. 10, 2018, he knew that was a flight he wasn’t coming back from. It was a remarkable journey, with Russell even completing a barrel roll in the commercial airliner before purposefully crashing into Ketron Island on Puget Sound.
The News Studios documentary chronicles that fateful 70-minute plane ride, featuring exclusive interviews with Russell’s loved ones, plus the conversations between him and air traffic control.
On The Red Carpet spoke with director Patricia E. Gillespie at the “#SKYKING” premiere event, where she explained what the flight came to mean.
“His flight sort of came to embody a lot of the hopes, dreams and despair of the American working class.”
Gillespie says of the never-before-heard air traffic control audio, “When you hear these recordings, you can’t help but, even thought the situation is very intense and dangerous and frightening, you can’t help but to root for this guy, and in rooting for him, people learn to root for themselves.”
Russell’s brother, Danny said, “I knew from the get go if we didn’t tell anyone who he was that the narrative would kind of go its own direction. And with that, it kind of did. So it’s nice to kind of set the story straight.”
We asked Danny to describe his brother, and his face lit up. “A stud. A clown. A guy that walked the walk. That’s the best way to describe him. Is he, he walked the walk. Never took the easy route. And, he was definitely, even though he was younger, he was definitely… I looked up to him in a lot of ways.”
Phil, his other brother, hopes audiences “know that it’s okay to talk about how you’re feeling in life and to express, you know, everything that’s going on in your life. You know, that there’s people out there that love and care about you.”
Danny echoed the same sentiment. “Peel back all the BS from the day-to-day. We all live the same kind of lives, the same kind of struggles. And more of us can kind of relate to each other than we realize.”
“#SKYKING” premieres April 14 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of News Studios, Hulu, Disney+ and this station.
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