SHINE — The Coast Guard and Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office search for the pilot of a small home-built plane that plunged into the Hood Canal on Monday was suspended that night and the investigation Tuesday was turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The pilot of the plane had been identified through a driver’s license found in debris, but Joshua Cawthra, investigator with the transportation safety board declined to release the name.
He said his agency would not identify the pilot. The Coast Guard also would not identify the pilot. A Kitsap County Sheriff spokesman would not comment on the pilot’s identity because the department was no longer investigating the case.
“There is still a lot to be determined,” Cawthra said.
Investigators are seeking and interviewing witnesses, and reviewing evidence including FAA radar data to determine the flight path, ground speed and behavior of the aircraft before the wreck, and maintenance records of the plane, Cawthra said.
Cawthra said the flight originated from Tacoma Narrows Airport in Gig Harbor, but would not confirm the name of the owner or the tail number of the plane.
The Federal Aviation Administration said that a 2013 RV7 — the designation for a two-seat, single-engine, low-wing aircraft sold in kit form by Van’s Aircraft of Oregon — is the only plane missing from area airports.
The kit plane, with a tail number N747BA, fits witnesses’ description of the red and white plane seen over the Hood Canal, has been identified as missing from Tacoma Narrows Airport in Gig Harbor, the FAA said.
The owner of the plane is listed as Robert K. Alexander, Jr., of Fox Island, but it was not confirmed who was flying the plane at the time of the crash.
The bulk of the wreckage is believed to be at a depth of about 500 to 600 feet of water, and at this time there is no plan to dive to the wreck, Cawthra said.
“The investigation is still in the preliminary stages,” he said.
No new information on the wreck is expected to be released until Friday, he said.
At 1:17 p.m. Monday several witnesses called 9-1-1 to report a plane apparently in distress over the Hood Canal between Dabab Bay in Jefferson County, and Seabeck in Kitsap County.
Later callers reported seeing the plane crash into the water west of Guillemot Cove.
An aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles located a debris field in the waters of Hood Canal about 5 miles southwest of Brinnon and south of Dabob Bay, in about 500 feet of water.
Lt. Greg Lynch flew one of the two Coast Guard MH-65 Delta helicopters involved in the search.
Lynch, also spokesman for the air station, said Tuesday that pilots in one of the four-person aircraft spotted the wreckage at about 2:30 p.m. Monday, barely an hour after authorities received the initial call that a plane went down.
“You had confirmation of the wreck, which is important,” Lynch said.
“At that point it was absolute confirmation there was an aviation incident there.”
A fishing vessel recovered the items and turned them over to Kitsap County Sheriff’s deputies, who in turn gave them to the Coast Guard, said Ken Dickinson, spokesman for the sheriff’s office.
The items included a drivers’s license, personal effects, and pieces of fiberglass, Dickinson said.
Dickinson would not identify the owner of the driver’s license.
The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office and the Coast Guard searched the water for the plane and pilot until about 9 p.m.
No additional wreckage was located.
The Coast Guard will not release the name of the pilot, who is still listed as “missing” because there was no body recovered, said Katelyn Shearer, a Coast Guard 13th District spokeswoman.
State Patrol and the sheriff’s offices of Jefferson and Mason counties also assisted in the search.
Weather reported at the time of the incident consisted of clear skies, 12- to 15-mph winds, 1-foot seas and water temperature of 50 degrees, the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard launched two MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crews, a 45-foot response boat and diverted the crew of Coast Guard cutter Henry Blake to the reported crash site to conduct the search.
________
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
