I live in Seattle and have never heard of “Ketron Island”, the location of the crash. Cursory googling shows that the 220 acre island is privately owned, and only 17 people live there. Of all the land masses to hit in the area, that one is probably the best possible if the intent was to hit Earth and injure no one but yourself.

It's got about 20 houses on it, according to Google Maps. Compare that to McNeil Island about 3 miles northwest, which is about 4400 acres and only has an abandoned prison and a small facility for sexually violent predators.

> lack of skill though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeYVtVg6aGs&feature=youtu.be

You see that barrel roll and subsequent dive and last second pull out? He's "played some video games" indeed. Dunno if that was skill, luck, or a beast plane, but...that was damn impressive if nothing else.

I expected to have to say "that's not a barrel roll" but actually it was!

That's a very difficult corkscrewing manoeuvre; imagine following the seam-line of a toilet-roll tube in the air. It requires coordination of all three controls in a continuously changing manner. Much different to an aileron roll that most people mistake for a barrel.

Very impressive indeed.

Getting it right once isn't so hard. Getting it right consistently to boot kill yourself young is hard

It's incredible that someone with no flight training can learn those maneuvers from video games.

I'd guess the percentage of people that could do it right their first time is in the low single digits.

In the full ATC audio he says he thinks one of his engines is going out before the crash and only has a few hundred pounds of fuel left (started with 3000lbs). He did circles around Mt Ranier, barrel rolls over Puget Sound, and went over to the Cascades.