The Cessna 150 Was Found Crashed In The Trees 150 Miles Away
By Maria Morrison
Stolen at 7:00.
Departed by 8:00.
Lost communication before 10:00.
Crashed around midnight.
Such was the wild night for the Cessna 150 taken from Jefferson County International Airport in Port Townsend, WA and crashed near the coast of Washington, roughly 150 miles away.
The small aircraft was found crashed in the trees just a few miles away from Quileute airport, and the pilot, unconscious, airlifted from the site to a Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The man inside was Richard Jordal, who stole the plane from Aurora Aircraft Maintenance Wednesday night.
Todd Hansen was on the ramp that night when he thought he saw a friend approaching. Instead, it was Jordal, asking Hansen to fly him to Astoria, OR. Immediately, Jordal's story didn't line up in Hansen's mind.
"He was in a questionable mental state," Hansen said.
Jordal, 59, wanted to stop at the nearby Bremerton airport for diving equipment and then continue across state lines to dive and free his boat from where it was stuck on a sandbar, Hansen said. He then was planning to dive at the next lowest tide, which would have been in the middle of the night.
"I could tell he wasn't coherent. He wasn't with it. I constantly needed to repeat myself," Hansen said of the conversation, which happened around 6:40 p.m.
Jordal did not appear to be intoxicated.
He then asked Hansen to violate FAA regulations in rural airspace, requesting the two fly low under radar coverage without ADS-B capabilities.
"It was so weird. My instinct told me something was going to go wrong," Hansen said.
THEFT AND CRASH
After the conversation, Jordal went into the flight room of Aurora Aircraft Maintenance. He tried to rent the Cessna 150, but failed to produce a pilot's certificate when asked, and was turned away.
Per the security camera footage, Jordal later let himself in and flipped around the books for a moment before grabbing the keys to the airplane from where they are kept.
Flight tracking shows him departing from the Jefferson County airport at 7:36 p.m., then landing at Bremerton and stopping for about 45 minutes. He continued south, toward Oregon, then turned west toward the coast. His last position was recorded at 9:41, after which he presumably shut off the avionics system.
At that time, he was in the southern portion of the Olympic National Park, flying at 5000 feet, which is below many of even the mid-sized peaks.
Meanwhile, Hansen, uneasy about the situation, told the story of his strange interaction to a local deputy, who began contacting other sheriff departments across the region, and controllers at Seattle Center.
About two hours later that evening, locals reported hearing a crash in the woods near Third Beach at Quileute Indian Reservation, within a few miles of the airport there.
Seattle Center received reports of the downed aircraft on the coast, Hansen said, and search parties continued until the odd hours of the morning, unable to find it.
The reason for the crash is currently unknown. The airplane is believed to have been left 14 gallons of fuel by the last pilot. Jordal purchased another 10 gallons with his personal credit card after stealing the plane. This would have resulted in him running out of gas right around the time he made it to Quileute.
The following morning, Jordal was found unconscious and still in the airplane. As of the morning of Aug. 20, he is still alive but in critical condition at the hospital.
A HISTORY OF INCIDENTS
Jordal's story becomes more complicated the farther back it goes.
In 2017, Jordal reportedly threw a hammer at a woman at a Port of Port Townsend marina. He also allegedly stole a bicycle on multiple occasions while at the boat haven. He then drunkenly threatened other mariners there.
This resulted in Jordal being banned from Port properties for five years for "engaging in behavior that creates a nuisance on Port properties," per a notice issued Oct. 3 2017. The Jefferson County International Airport (runway pictured) is also Port property.
A 1968 Mooney is registered to Jordal, with an address listed in Richland, WA. On July 14, 2020, the airplane sustained a gear-up landing, resulting in no injury and minor damage.
At the Jefferson County airport, he left a Hertz rental car, the backseat filled with various newly-purchased items, many with the tags still on, including ammunition, a change of clothes, sleeping gear, and food.
The local sheriff's office is considering pressing charges of burglary and theft. The FBI is also involved, investigating if federal laws were violated.
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