LANGLEY, Wash. (AP) — One individual was killed and 9 individuals remained lacking, together with a baby, after a floatplane crashed Sunday afternoon in Puget Sound in Washington state, the U.S. Coast Guard stated.
The company stated in a press launch the airplane was flying from Friday Harbor, a preferred vacationer vacation spot within the San Juan Islands, to Renton, a southern suburb of Seattle.
4 Coast Guard vessels, a rescue helicopter and an plane had been concerned within the intensive search, together with close by rescue and legislation enforcement businesses.
The crash was reported at 3:11 p.m. The Coast Guard stated one physique had been recovered and 9 individuals had been nonetheless lacking as of round 9 p.m. The reason for the crash is unknown, authorities stated.
The airplane went down in Mutiny Bay off Whidbey Island, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of downtown Seattle and about midway between Friday Harbor and Renton.
The Nationwide Transportation Security Board stated the airplane was a de Havilland DHC-3 Otter, a single-engine propeller airplane.
Floatplanes, which have pontoons permitting them to land on water, are a typical sight round Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. There are a number of, each day flights between the Seattle space and the San Juan Islands, a scenic archipelago northwest of Seattle that pulls vacationers from around the globe.
These plane, which additionally fly between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, regularly journey over Seattle and land in Lake Washington, not removed from town’s iconic House Needle.
Renton, the place authorities say the flight was headed Sunday, is on the southern tip of Lake Washington, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Seattle.
In 2019, a midair crash in Alaska between two sightseeing planes killed six individuals. The Ketchikan-based floatplanes had been carrying passengers from the identical cruise ship, the Royal Princess, and had been coming back from excursions of Misty Fjords Nationwide Monument.