ISLAND COUNTY, Wash. — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the U.S. Navy will begin efforts later this month to recover the wreckage of a floatplane that crashed into the Puget Sound near Whidbey Island earlier in September.
Recovery efforts to raise the wreckage are expected to begin on Sept. 26, according to the NTSB.
The plane was flying from Friday Harbor, a popular tourist destination in the San Juan Islands, to Renton Municipal Airport when the crash was reported at 3:10 p.m., according to the Coast Guard. The plane crashed in Mutiny Bay off Whidbey Island, roughly 30 miles northwest of downtown Seattle and about halfway between Friday Harbor and Renton.
Nine adults and one child were aboard the aircraft at the time of the crash. The body of one woman, who has been identified as Gabrielle Hanna, was recovered by a good Samaritan. The other nine passengers are still missing.
The plane is under approximately 190 feet of water, according to an update from the NTSB. Due to the depth and the speed of the current, which is three to five knots, the agency decided the best way to recover the wreckage is by using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV).
The U.S. Navy will use a work class ROV Deep Drone 8,000, a barge and a crane to recover the wreckage from the seafloor. Officials said the ROV will collect smaller pieces of wreckage into baskets and connect the wreckage for the crane to lift, the NTSB said. This will be a "24/7 operation" once the barge is in place.
Some items from the airplane have already been recovered, according to the NTSB, including foam fragments from the plane's floats, a seat cushion, a seatbelt, dispatch paperwork, flooring structure remnants and some personal items from the victims.
The NTSB also released its preliminary report detailing the moments leading to the floatplane crash on Sept. 4.
According to the preliminary report, witnesses near the accident site reported the airplane was in level flight before it entered a slight climb and then pitched down in a near-vertical descent. Several witnesses described the airplane as “spinning,” “rotating” or “spiraling” during portions of the descent. One witness reported hearing the noise from the engine and propeller, but there was not any “pitch change” in the noise.
The NTSB said the airplane was operating under Part 135 of FAA regulations, which governs the operation of business and charter flights. The crash occurred during the pilot’s second trip of the day. Each trip involved multiple flight legs.
The pilot, who started working for the operator in 2013, had accrued a total of 4,686 flight hours as of May 31, according to the report.
NTSB said the information contained in the report is preliminary and subject to change as the investigation progresses. The preliminary report details facts uncovered during the initial on-scene investigation and does not include analysis or probable cause for the accident.
Officials said determining the probable cause for the accident could take between 12-24 months.