Kenmore Air floatplane crashes off Washington coast, all 11 survive

The Kenmore Air floatplane that went down near Sucia Island carried 10 passengers and one pilot, made an emergency landing in Shallow Bay and then caught fire, but everyone aboard survived. Kenmore Air said all 11 people had been accounted for after the July 23 crash off Washington’s San Juan Islands.

The aircraft was a de Havilland DHC-3 Otter operating as flight #140 from Lake Union in Seattle. Kenmore Air said the trouble began at about 5:15 p.m. local time, while the U.S. Coast Guard Sector of Puget Sound received the report at about 5:25 p.m., as emergency crews rushed toward the scene. The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office later said everyone aboard was rescued from the water.

FOX 13 Seattle reported that four people were injured and transported for treatment, while ABC News said multiple people were hurt, including one critically injured. ABC also reported that the seaplane had 11 people aboard and that all were rescued from the water after the crash near Sucia Island.

The seconds before impact will now matter. Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and, if opened, the National Transportation Safety Board will look at the plane’s descent into Shallow Bay, the emergency landing attempt, the fire that followed, and whether mechanical trouble, weather, pilot response or a problem with the aircraft’s configuration turned a water landing into a rescue. A floatplane crash carries different risks than a conventional runway accident because the aircraft is built to land on water, where wind, waves, buoyancy and post-landing fire can complicate evacuation and response.

The crash also lands in a region where seaplanes are both transportation and tourism. Kenmore Air says it serves 45 destinations from Seattle, making the carrier part of the Pacific Northwest’s seasonal travel network to places such as the San Juan Islands and Roche Harbor. The company’s scale also means every serious incident draws scrutiny beyond one flight, especially after the September 2022 Whidbey Island seaplane crash that killed all 10 people aboard.

Federal investigators have already found in a different Washington seaplane disaster that a disconnected actuator made control impossible, a reminder that small mechanical failures can become catastrophic over water. Against that history, the fact that all 11 people survived the Sucia Island crash is the central measure of the rescue: a badly damaged aircraft, a fast response from the Coast Guard and local crews, and a rare outcome in which everyone got out alive.