Former commercial airline pilot identified in small airplane crash

An eyewitness says as he watched a small plane spiral into the Hood Canal Monday, he was certain whoever was inside would be killed.
 
“It didn’t look like anyone was going to survive that,” said John Marker.
 
Marker was at his home near Seabeck just before 1:00 p.m. when he saw the aircraft lose control and plunge into the water.
 
“I saw the plane coming down in a whirlybird type of motion and it went below the tree line,” Marker said. “It was horrible, it was a very helpless feeling.”
 
KIRO 7 has learned the pilot was Robert Alexander Jr, 65,  a former commercial airline pilot and flight mechanic from Fox Island. According to the website pilots-airmen.findthedata.com, Alexander was rated to fly Boeing 747’s and 727’s as well as Airbus A-320’s and A-330’s. 
 
Alexander's Van's RV-7 home-built airplane was reported missing from the Narrows Airport in Gig Harbor late Monday. 
 
The Coast Guard was not able to recover Alexander's body but found his identification floating in the water and notified his family of the crash. Family members contacted by KIRO 7 declined to talk about the crash.
 
The search for Alexander’s body and the wreckage was suspended late Monday. The water in the area where the plane went down is 500 to 600 feet deep.  The Coast Guard said there are no plans at this point to attempt to recover the wreckage.

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