LAKE GOODWIN — It could take months to know what caused a plane crash on Lake Goodwin that claimed the life of a 6-year-old Anacortes boy, a federal investigator said Monday.
The upside-down Cessna 206 was towed Monday from the northwest corner of the lake to Wenberg County Park. From there,
it was lifted by crane and loaded onto a flatbed truck.
The amphibious plane flipped on its top Saturday around 2 p.m. Witnesses reported the plane’s wheels were extended from its pontoons, as if it were making a ground landing, when it hit the water.
“Why they were out, we do not know,” said Joshua Cawthra, an aviation accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. “That is going to be part of our investigation.”
A Federal Aviation Administration accident report Monday said the “aircraft flipped over on a touch and go landing.”
The accident investigation requires looking at “man, machine and environment” and will take six months to a year to complete, Cawthra said. The plane was being taken to Auburn, where it will be closely inspected and much of the investigation will unfold.
Jacob C. Jeter was a first-grader at Fidalgo Elementary School in Anacortes. He was a bright boy and a talented artist, his teacher, Patty Johnson, said in a statement released by the Anacortes School District.
“He loved life and each day walked into the classroom with a big smile, eager to learn,” Johnson said. “Jacob was passionate about nature and longed to be outdoors.”
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office said he died from freshwater drowning.
The plane was hoisted from the lake just after 2 p.m. Monday. Jacob’s father, 55, whose name was not released, was piloting the plane Saturday. He was able to escape from the plane after it flipped upside down, but the boy was trapped inside for about 40 minutes. A diver from the Snohomish County Technical Water Rescue Team recovered the boy. He was rushed to an Everett hospital, where he died.
The water rescue team spent much of Monday recovering the plane. Divers prepared the six-seat plane for towing and later rigged it to the crane. Other sheriff deputies manned a rope that helped bring it out of the water.
“This is just real sad,” sheriff’s Lt. Rodney Rochon said. “We lost a 6-year-old boy.”
The tail of the plane was damaged. Cawthra said he didn’t know if it was damaged by the crash or the recovery effort.
An orange oil-collection boom surrounded the plane and it appeared any fuel that leaked from the wreckage was well-contained, Chris Wilkerson, a state Department of Ecology spill responder, said.
Grief counseling was being made available to children at Jacob’s school, as well as those at the Whitney Early Childhood Center, where his brother is a student, Anacortes Superintendent Chris Borgen said.
The float plane reportedly was one of three flying together and attempting to land on the lake. It was the only one that crashed.
“It was like seeing lightning strike to see a plane crash,” eyewitness Rob McKay said.
Rescuers in boats and planes were at the crash site within minutes, McKay said.
McKay and his neighbors were too far away to do more than call 911.
“Everyone was horrified and there was nothing you could do,” he said.
Lake Goodwin is a popular destination for float planes.
Diane Lustig said she has enjoyed watching their touch-and-go flights for more than the decade she has lived by Lake Goodwin.
Lustig heard the crash, but did not see it.
“It wasn’t a real loud noise, just something out of the ordinary,” she said. “It was just so sad.”
Eric Stevick, 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com
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