SHINE — Personnel from the Seattle-based Coast Guard 13th District were searching for survivors in a debris field Monday night after a small plane went down in Hood Canal earlier in the day.
The plane crashed in about 500 feet of water in the area of Guillemot Cove southwest of Seabeck shortly after 1 p.m., said Sgt. Ken Dickinson of the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Department.
The Coast Guard took over coordination of recovery operations from regional law enforcement and emergency services personnel late Monday afternoon, Dickinson said.
A Coast Guard public information officer did not return calls for comment.
No information was available on the number of occupants in the plane or its origin or destination.
No planes were reported missing as of Monday afternoon from William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles, Jefferson County International Airport in Port Townsend or Bremerton National Airport.
Rescue personnel began responding to multiple reports of a small plane in distress and at least one report of it crashing into the waters of Hood Canal between Dabob Bay in Jefferson County and Seabeck in Kitsap County.
“What the report said was they saw it fall into the water,” Dickinson said.
The initial reports came from Seabeck, a small shoreline town of 1,000 population a few miles south of the Hood Canal Bridge, beginning at 1:17 p.m., Dickinson said.
State Patrol spokesman Trooper Russ Winger said reports had the plane going down along Kitsap County’s eastern shore of Hood Canal.
Dickinson said the aircraft was described as being red and white.
An aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles aided for a short time in the search, he said.
The State Patrol also diverted an aircraft that was already in flight to the area where the plane was reportedly last seen, Winger said.
Dickinson reported that at about 2:30 p.m. Monday, a Coast Guard helicopter was able to locate the debris and later confirmed it was from the plane.
Other departments involved in the search included the Mason County Sheriff’s Office, Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office and Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
News Editor Michael Foster contributed to this report.
