Floatplane Crash on Washington Lake Leaves 1 Dead & 1 Injured

Authorities are still trying to piece together what happened in a plane crash this weekend that left 1 dead & 1 seriously injured.

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Floatplane Crashes in Lake Sammamish, Washington

The Bellevue Fire Department and police received reports last Friday at 11:11 am about an airplane that had crashed into Lake Sammamish. The craft was described as a white "floatplane" with blue stripes on the side sitting on its top after crashing into the water and flipping over. When authorities arrived at the wreck, they found two victims. One, later found to be the passenger, survived but the other known now as the pilot perished during the crash and was pronounced dead at the scene. The surviving passenger was taken to a local hospital while rescuers tried to resuscitate the pilot for almost 30 minutes on the dock. Witnesses of the crash called 911 when they saw the plane "take off and struggle to stay up before nosediving". The Bellevue Fire Department Public Information Officer, Heather Wong, says one witness saw the plane nosedive after reaching around 50 feet of elevation.

Witness Springs to Action: Heads to Help with Boat

One witness named Matt Vasey who lives on the lake, saw the plane crash and instantly ran to his boat to help. After driving to the crash 3/4 of a mile offshore Vasey said in an interview with King5, “I jumped in the water and went down and felt in the cockpit that there was somebody in there but I couldn’t pull them out. So I got deeper in the water in the cockpit and unbelted the seat belt and pulled him out of the cockpit and got him up on the bottom of the wing and started CPR on the bottom of the wing".

Names Not Released: This is What We Know

The names of the pilot and the man seriously injured have not been released because the family chooses not to at this time. We do know from an interview with a friend on King5 of the people involved that the pilot was an 80-year-old man who has been a licensed pilot since the 1970s. The discussion in the interview also revealed that the surviving victim was also related and the stepson of the pilot. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) removed the plane from the lake and has been investigating pieces from the crash at the pilot's home. The FAA released a preliminary statement about the crash identifying the airplane as a single-engine Seawind 3000.