He stole the 76-seat Horizon Air turboprop aircraft, took off from the runway at 7:32 p.m. local time Friday, and flew across the Puget Sound region doing dangerous giant loops and stunts in the air during its hour-long flight before the crash.

His plane was chased by two U.S. F-15 fight jets dispatched by North American Aerospace Defense Command before it crashed on the small, sparsely populated island about 64 km away from the Seattle-Tacoma airport.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) ruled out the hijacking was an act of terrorism Friday night.

"Although response efforts to tonight's aircraft incident and the investigation are still ongoing, information gathered thus far does NOT suggest a terrorist threat or additional, pending criminal activity," the FBI said in a Twitter post.

Ground operations at the Seattle airport were halted for some time before it was restored at 8:40 p.m local time Friday (03:40 GMT Saturday).

Approximately 75 flights were delayed, nine flights were diverted to other airports and five flights canceled during the time of the incident, the authorities of the Seattle-Tacoma airport said in a statement Saturday.

Seattle-Tacoma is the ninth busiest airport in the United States, serving more than 46.9 million passengers in 2017.

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