Two injured after small floatplane crashes next to house in Lakewood

LAKEWOOD, Wash. — Two people survived the crash of a small float plane in Lakewood Tuesday afternoon.

The plane ended up in a driveway – just feet from a house. Neighbors told KIRO 7 that the owner of the home worked with the plane’s passenger to pull the pilot out, into the house, and away from the flames.

“I was kind of sick to my stomach because it didn’t look like anybody had gotten out of it,” neighbor Daniel Cook said. “All of the a sudden there was a big boom.”

As it approached the homes in the area, the plane slammed into trees, knocking branches into another the backyard of another neighbor, Jay Petersen, moments after he stepped inside.

“If I was still out there where I was at the barbecue, there was a big one that would have hit me,” Petersen said.

The pilot was seriously hurt in the crash. Medics were able to fly him to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where officials said his injuries were not considered life-threatening. The plane’s passenger was taken to a Tacoma hospital for treatment.

“I’m thinking how blessed we are,” Cook said.

The first Federal Aviation Administration investigators arrived on the scene a few hours after the crash. They describe the plane as a single-engine Aviat A-1C-180, which had just taken off from nearby Lake Steilacoom.

The investigation into what caused this crash is just beginning.

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