螺絲鬆掉
然後又掉了的
那種人
然後又掉了的
那種人
支離破碎
不再擁有重量
因為不存在而存在
只是飛翔
—— 2018年8月10日，美國西雅圖塔科馬國際機場（Seattle–Tacoma International Airport）一名29歲地勤人員理查．羅素（Richard Russell）在未經授權的情況下駕駛一架龐巴迪Q400客機起飛。
理查並非飛行員。他利用地勤工作期間累積的觀察與模擬飛行經驗，成功駕駛飛機升空，並在普吉特灣上空做出多次盤旋與特技動作。
飛行過程中，他與航管人員保持通話，語氣平靜而幽默，也流露出長期累積的失落與孤獨。約一小時後，飛機墜毀於凱特隆島附近，機上僅有他一人。
事件震驚全球。有人將他視為危險的失控者，也有人從他的談話中聽見一個平凡人被生活壓碎後最後的呼喊。
多年以後，人們仍記得那架獨自飛向黃昏天空的飛機，以及那個曾說自己只是個「壞掉的人」（a broken guy）的理查。
理查：「我是個支離破碎、壞掉的人。我想我有些螺絲鬆了，我猜吧，而且我一直都沒真的搞清楚。」
Richard's Sky
The screws came loose,
and then fell away,
the kind of person
shattered into pieces,
no longer carrying weight,
existing through nonexistence
only flying
— On August 10, 2018, a 29 year old ground service employee, Richard Russell, took off without authorization in a Bombardier Q400 from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport.
Russell was not a pilot. Drawing on what he had learned through years of airport work and flight simulation, he successfully got the aircraft airborne and performed a series of turns and aerial maneuvers above Puget Sound.
Throughout the flight, he remained in radio contact with air traffic controllers. His voice was calm, humorous, and at times touched by an unmistakable loneliness and disappointment accumulated over many years. Roughly an hour later, the aircraft crashed near Ketron Island, with Russell as the sole person on board.
The incident shocked the world. Some saw him as a dangerously unstable man. Others heard, within his words, the final cry of an ordinary person crushed by the weight of life.
Years later, many still remember the airplane flying alone into the evening sky, and Richard, who once described himself simply as “a broken guy.”
Richard: “I’m a broken guy. I guess I’ve got a few screws loose, I guess, and I’ve just never really had any clue.”
