The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released 500 pages of findings on Friday into the September 2022 float plane crash off Whidbey Island that killed 10 people.
The single-engine float plane that crashed was a DHC-3 Turbine Otter, according to the NTSB. The plane was about 200 feet deep in the water after it crashed, according to South Whidbey Fire/EMS.
The NTSB’s investigation found that a specific clamp nut had unscrewed from the barrel of the plane, and that a circular wire ring designed to keep the nut in place was not present at all. In instances where the barrel and clamp nut aren’t secured, a plane loses the ability to control its horizontal stabilizer, as well as its control over its pitch (which affects the ability to point the nose of the plane up and down).
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It’s unclear why the wire ring wasn’t found, but the NTSB did cite concerns “that a missing or an improperly installed lock ring on other DHC-3 planes has the potential to result in a catastrophic loss of control.”
As part of Friday’s release, the NTSB clarified that nothing in its findings so far constitute a “final report or a probable cause.”
“No conclusions about how or why the crash happened should be drawn from the information within the docket,” the NTSB noted.
Also included in its release was a collection of witness videos, numerous photos from the recovered wreckage, maintenance records, a toxicology report on the pilot, and more.
Karin Pinney is among the dozens of witnesses who shared their stories. Pinney was playing cards with friends along Mutiny Bay when they saw the seaplane make a sudden nose dive.
“We ran across our neighbor’s yard, grabbed our dinghy, got our life vests, got the keys to our boat, and then we spent the next three hours looking,” she told KIRO 7. “We really thought we were going to get people. We really did.”
Another witness, Ross Pieckert, was in his Anacortes front yard when he noticed the aircraft.
“It was just very loud, it seemed to be lower than normal,” said Pieckert. “It really was awful to think that you were on of the last people to see this plane before it went down.”
The NTSB says now the majority of the fact gathering is done with. The entire investigation could take 24 months.
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