One person was reported killed and nine people remain missing, including a child, after a floatplane traveling from Friday Harbor to Renton crashed Sunday afternoon in Mutiny Bay off Whidbey Island, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Numerous Coast Guard vessels and multiple aircraft are involved in an extensive search, along with nearby rescue and law enforcement agencies, which continued overnight after the Sunday crash.
No wreckage or other victims were located during the overnight search, the Coast Guard said Monday morning. Coast Guard aircraft from Sacramento and Port Angeles stations resumed the search Monday morning, Chief Petty Officer William Colclough told Cascadia Daily News Monday morning.
“Active searches continue as we speak,” Colclough said. “… We are searching for any signs of survivors.”
An individual reported the crash at 3:11 p.m. Sunday. The Coast Guard said one body had been recovered and nine people were still missing as of around noon Monday. The victim recovered was a female, The Seattle Times reported Sunday.
The cause of the crash is unknown, authorities said. Colclough said there were 10 nautical miles of visibility and winds of less than 10 knots when the floatplane went down. It is unknown if the aircraft carried life jackets or other personal protective equipment, Colclough said.
The plane went down in Mutiny Bay off Whidbey Island, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of downtown Seattle and about halfway between Friday Harbor and Renton.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the plane was a de Havilland DHC-3 Turbine Otter, a single-engine propeller craft. The NTSB is sending a team of seven investigators to the site, the agency said Monday.
The plane was owned by Northwest Seaplanes, Colclough told The Seattle Times. The charter service, based in Renton, operates four six-passenger de Havilland Beavers and a single Otter, a larger version of the aircraft, according to its website.
Coast Guard officials said in a release that an “extensive” search was ongoing Sunday night.
Participating in the search were an MH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter crew from Port Angeles, the 87-foot Coast Guard Cutter Osprey, the 87-foot Coast Guard Cutter Blue Shark and other vessels, as well as a C-27 aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento.
Additionally, first responders from South Whidbey Fire, Island County Sheriff’s Office and Snohomish County Sheriff’s office were on the scene, The Seattle Times reported.
Floatplanes are a common sight around Puget Sound, traveling daily up the west coast of Whidbey Island between the Seattle area’s Lake Union and Lake Washington and the San Juan Islands as well as Vancouver, British Columbia.
Renton, where authorities say the flight was headed Sunday, is at the southern tip of Lake Washington.
In 2019, a midair crash in Alaska between two sightseeing planes killed six people. The Ketchikan-based floatplanes were carrying passengers from the same cruise ship, the Royal Princess, and were returning from tours of Misty Fjords National Monument.
This story was updated at 9:15 a.m. Monday and will be further updated if more information becomes available.
This story was updated at 12:02 p.m. Monday and will be further updated if more information becomes available.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
