SHINE — Kitsap County sheriff’s deputies have suspended their hunt for a small plane that crashed into Hood Canal after a sonar search Wednesday found no conclusive evidence of the aircraft.
The crash that occurred Monday afternoon is believed to have killed the plane’s pilot, who was thought to be Robert K. Alexander Jr. of Fox Island.
“At this point, we don’t know where the plane is,” said Sgt. Ken Dickinson, Kitsap sheriff’s spokesman, Thursday.
“We’ll possibly arrange to go out again at some point,” he said, adding that no time had been set to resume the search.
The crash occurred in water across from Jefferson County that’s 500 to 600 feet deep.
Kitsap County authorities had been joined Wednesday by a marine unit from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office that used side-scan sonar to look for the plane, reportedly a two-seat RV-7 aircraft that Alexander had built from a kit in 2013, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
An aircraft matching the description of the single-engine, low-wing plane was seen to crash into the water between Dabob Bay in Jefferson County and Seabeck in Kitsap County at 1:17 p.m. Monday.
“They found a bunch of echoes, but they really have no idea of what they were,” Dickinson said about the sonar search.
Alexander, 65, was certified by the FAA to build the aircraft from a kit manufactured by an Oregon company.
He also held certifications to fly Boeing and Airbus jumbo jets and serve as a flight engineer on turboprop aircraft.
His son told The Seattle Times on Tuesday that the Coast Guard — which had sent helicopters and surface vessels to the search area — had notified him that his father probably had died in the crash.
No body has been found, only some personal effects that included a driver’s license and some fiberglass fragments thought to be from the aircraft.
Neither the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, nor the Coast Guard has verified that Alexander was the pilot.