Sucia Island Floatplane Crash Victims Saved by Citizen Flotilla
It was a scenario no one likes to think about. A small airplane with nearly a dozen passengers aboard crashed into the Strait of Georgia during a thunderstorm and then burst into flames. But the story took a hopeful turn as a spontaneous flotilla of civilian boaters reached and tended to all eleven passengers before the plane caught fire and before professional rescuers were able to arrive on scene.
The story resonates with members of the Bainbridge Prepares’ Flotilla Team, which frequently practices for similar scenarios and is ready to jump into action after a large-scale earthquake or life-threatening ferry grounding to lend a hand and rescue people or transport them.
The Sucia Island crash happened this past Thursday, July 23, around 5:23 p.m. The Kenmore Air floatplane with eleven people on board took off from Lake Union, flew toward Roche Harbor (San Juan Island), but before landing suddenly veered northeast, and made an emergency water landing, crashing into rocks on the Sucia Island shore. The pilot and the passengers quickly climbed out of the wreckage and scrambled onto the rocks.
About a dozen boaters who witnessed the event or heard the SOS call on the radio immediately headed toward the site, one of them borrowing a kayak to get there. When the spontaneous flotilla arrived, the rescuers lashed three of their boats together to fashion a makeshift triage platform. They administered first aid and kept patients warm, operating like our BP Medical Reserve Corps Wilderness First Response–trained volunteers by making do with the materials at hand—for example, by fashioning splints from life vests.
The initial rescuers, who included six medical professionals, were joined soon thereafter by professional first responders including the Coast Guard who took over operations and transported the injured to hospitals in the region. Some of the injuries were serious, such as a broken femur, but all eleven people survived.
This incident is a shining example of how regular citizens first on scene can make an enormous difference in disaster outcomes by working together to offer an initial response. Stuart Scadron-Wattles, one of the BP Flotilla Team’s Co-Leads, points to the story as evidence of “the importance of private boats in emergency response.” By adding some training and practice, like our Flotilla Team and MRC have, you create a crack first response team to handle the initial aftermath of disasters large and small.
Featured photo from video taken by witness Jonathan Scott.