How 11 Kenmore Air crash survivors were rescued off Washington's Sucia Island

David Gutman, Paul Roberts and Paige Cornwell, The Seattle Times on Jul 24, 2026

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SEATTLE — The pilot and 10 passengers from the Kenmore Air seaplane flight that crashed Thursday evening in the San Juan Islands had all gotten out of the plane and onto Sucia Island by the time emergency responders arrived, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said Friday.

Videos posted to social media appear to show the plane, a de Havilland DHC-3 Otter aircraft that took off from Seattle and was headed to Roche Harboron San Juan Island, make a wobbly emergency landing in Shallow Bay just offshore. There’s then a loud crash and the plane ultimately ended up lodged on rocks on the coast of Sucia Island.

Emergency responders from San Juan County, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, the Canadian Coast Guard and several other agencies all rushed to the scene.

When they arrived, passengers had managed to exit the plane — which then caught on fire — and scramble from the rocks to dry land, San Juan County Undersheriff Michael Hairston said.

“The pilot was able to help people get out,” Hairston said.

Emergency responders took passengers by boat to Orcas and San Juan Islands, Hairston said, and took the more seriously injured passengers by helicopter to hospitals.

Late Friday morning, Hairston said he was on the scene of the crash. It was low tide, so the plane was above the water and accessible, but he said the state Department of Fish and Wildlife had divers in the water to search for any pieces or debris.

The cause of the crash remains unclear. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration both said they are investigating.

The plane will likely be recovered Friday and taken to a secure facility for further examination, according to the NTSB.

On Thursday, thunderstorms were moving through the area at the time of the crash, with 12 to 20 mph gusts and 10 mile visibility, the National Weather Service said.

Christopher Peacock, executive director of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, was on Eastsound on Orcas Island, about three miles south of the crash site on Thursday evening. Peacock described a very calm day and then the sudden onset of a “tremendous lightning storm.”

“It was big, and it was right in that location,” Peacock said. “It was happening all around us, right above us.”

“It was totally unexpected,” he added.

The plane took off Thursday at 4:33 p.m. from Lake Union in Seattle and headed northwest. About 45 minutes later, when it was just north of the San Juans, flight tracking sites show it made a sudden hairpin turn and flew east before rapidly descending and crashing off Sucia Island.

All 10 passengers were initially taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham or Peace Island Medical Center in Friday Harbor, said PeaceHealth spokesperson Amy Drury. Five have been discharged with two more anticipated to be discharged today, while one is in satisfactory condition in Friday Harbor.

Two of the passengers — a man and woman both in their 20s — were transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and are now in satisfactory condition, said spokesperson Susan Gregg. The pilot was sent to Skagit Valley Hospital, Kenmore Air said.