Langley, Washington: The U.S. Coast Guard reported that one person, including a child, died and was missing when a floatplane crashed Sunday afternoon in Washington’s Puget Sound.
According to a news release from the agency, the plane was travelling from Friday Harbor, a famous tourist site in the San Juan Islands, to Renton, a southern Seattle suburb.
Four Coast Guard vessels, a rescue helicopter, and an airplane, together with nearby rescue and law enforcement organizations, participated in the comprehensive search.
The crash was reported at 3:11 p.m.
As of approximately 9 p.m., the Coast Guard reported that one body had been discovered and nine individuals were still missing. The cause of the accident was unknown, according to investigators.
The aircraft crashed in Mutiny Bay off Whidbey Island, approximately 30 miles northwest of Seattle and midway between Friday Harbor and Renton.
The National Transportation Safety Board identified the plane as a single-engine propeller de Havilland DHC-3 Otter.
Floatplanes, which are equipped with pontoons for water landings, are a familiar sight in Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. There are many daily flights between the Seattle area and the San Juan Islands, a picturesque archipelago northwest of Seattle that attracts visitors from around the globe.
These planes, which also operate between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, typically soar over Seattle and land near the city’s recognizable Space Needle in Lake Washington.
Sunday’s flight was reportedly en route to Renton, which is at the southern point of Lake Washington, about 10 miles southeast of Seattle.
Six persons perished in a midair collision between two tourist planes in Alaska in 2019. The Ketchikan-based floatplanes were returning from excursions of Misty Fjords National Monument with guests from the same cruise liner, the Royal Princess.
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