A Kenmore-based diving company is scheduled to begin looking Friday for the small plane that went down in the water just off Edmonds’ Marina Beach last week.
The plane’s pilot, a 50-year-old Buckley man, was rescued by a private boat after the emergency landing last Thursday, Aug. 26. He was uninjured and there were no passengers on board. The plane sank shortly after the pilot was rescued.
According to Washington State Department of Ecology spokesperson Jasmin Adams, Crux Diving has been hired to salvage the plane. The company will use the plane’s last known location as a starting point, and will use a combination of divers and a remote operated vehicle, Adams said, adding that Crux will not do a fly-over of the area.
Asked whether the fuel onboard the plane poses a danger to water quality, Adams said that “there’s always the potential threat of a spill, but we’re not concerned with a spill at this time. There was no sheen in the water, and no evidence of a leak,” she added.
The plane’s owner is responsible both for salvaging the plane and mitigating any fuel loss, she said.
Meanwhile, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesperson Kiiva Williams said that the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the incident.
“Accident investigations typically take a year or more to complete,” Williams said.
— By Teresa Wippel with reporting by David Carlos
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