About
“Sky King” is a nickname given to 29-year-old ground service operator Richard Russell after he stole a Horizon Air Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 airliner from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) and died after crashing on Ketron Island in Puget Sound. The incident spawned numerous image macros, photoshops and fan arts on 4chan and other online communities.
Origin
On August 10th, 2018, Russell stole the airliner from a maintenance position at the Sea-Tac airport. After attempting the aircraft took off, two F-15 fighter jets were deployed.
That day, Boston Globe journalist Matt Karolian tweeted a link to the Sea-Tac air traffic control broadcast, followed by an announcement that Russell revealed he would attempt a barrel roll maneuver (shown below).
After performing the stunt, along with other maneuvers, the plane crashed on Ketron Island in the Puget Sound. Russell, the sole occupant of the aircraft, perished in the crash.
On August 11th, 2018, a post about the plane crash was submitted to 4chan’s /pol/ board, where an anonymous user replied “Sky King?” (shown below).
Spread
On August 11th, 2018, journalist Jimmy Tomson tweeted out a series of audio clips in which Russell can be heard talking to an air traffic controller (shown below).
Footage of Russell performing the barrel roll was captured on video by Facebook user John Waldron. The video was widely circulated online and by major news publications (shown below).
Full video form John Waldron on Facebook being shown on CNN #seatac pic.twitter.com/R98bl5uQBr
— Cameron Thomsen (@CameronThomsen) August 11, 2018
On 4chan, threads dedicated to Russell were submitted over the next several days, many of which contained photoshops, image macros and fan arts praising the incident and referring to Russell as “Sky King” (shown below).
Meanwhile, various tributes to Russell were uploaded to YouTube (shown below). In the coming days, articles about the incident were published in The New York Times, CBS News and The Washington Post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlv2dHZnfk
Search Interest
Know Your Meme Store
External References
Source: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sky-king-richard-russell