A wooden cross and a picture of Richard Russell are nailed to a tree near the spot the 29-year-old crashed a stolen passenger plane into the ground on Ketron Island Aug. 10.
Wednesday, the Department of Natural Resources gave KIRO 7 an up-close look at the once-fiery crash site on the small, private island. Crews said it was one of the most dangerous 2-acre fires they've ever fought.
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“Wildland fire, we're good at, but what do we know about suppressing aviation fires? We imagined there would be hazmat, there'd be fuel. These aren't things we deal with on a regular basis,” said DNR Air Support ground supervisor Nancy Barker.
Last month, Chopper 7 captured video of the flames. For days, officials hauled plane wreckage from the site, poured water on hot spots and removed Russell's body from the scene.
“This scene looks nothing like it did the morning of the 11 when we arrived on scene. This has been significantly cleaned up, a lot of debris has been taken out, obviously the airplane debris has been removed,” said Barker.
Ketron Island is difficult to get to. It's covered in trees and only a handful of people live there.
Hilary Franz is Washington’s commissioner of public lands. She said crews took ferries to the island and worked there for several weeks.
"The aircraft presented a significant danger to our firefighters, which meant we had to fight the fire differently than we would've had to before. We had to sweep a larger perimeter, we had to watch part of that fire and make sure our fire crews weren't going in at the wrong time,” said Franz.
Now, all that remains at the site is leveled trees, piles of charred trunks and even pieces of metal left behind from the Horizon Air plane.
The FBI said Wednesday the investigation into the unauthorized flight of a Horizon Air Q400 aircraft continues. Search efforts resulted in the recovery of the remaining components of the cockpit voice recorder. The flight data and cockpit voice recorders from aircraft N449QX have been sent to the NTSB.
Cox Media Group
