The names of the missing pilot and eight passengers of a Sunday afternoon floatplane crash in Mutiny Bay off Whidbey Island were released Tuesday morning.
The body of one passenger was recovered Sunday night and transferred to the Island County Coroner, but the individual has not yet been positively identified, the Coast Guard said.
The pilot, Jason Winters, and eight passengers, Patricia Hicks, Sandra Williams, Lauren Hilty, Ross Mickel, Luke Ludwig, Rebecca Ludwig, Joanne Mera, Gabrielle Hanna and child Remy Mickel are still missing.
The Coast Guard suspended an extensive search for the individuals at noon on Monday.
“It’s one of the most difficult decisions the Coast Guard has to make,” Chief Petty Officer William Colclough told Cascadia Daily News Monday afternoon. “It is done with great care and deliberation, and it’s in close coordination and contact with the next of kin.”
The National Transportation Safety Board said the plane was a de Havilland DHC-3 Turbine Otter, a single-engine propeller craft, owned by Renton-based charter Northwest Seaplanes.
The crash was reported at 3:11 p.m. Sunday, spurring a multi-agency effort to find survivors in 1,283 linear nautical miles of sea, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard and partner agencies are continuing to search for debris from the crash, Colclough said Monday.
