Peninsula Daily News staff report
SHINE — The man believed to be flying the plane that crashed into Hood Canal on Monday was an experienced pilot who was certified to fly jumbo jets such as the Boeing 747.
The family of Robert K. Alexander Jr. told The Seattle Times that the 65-year-old Fox Island man was thought to have died when his single-engine, kit-built plane plunged into the water between Dabob Bay in Jefferson County and Seabeck in Kitsap County.
The victim’s son told the newspaper that he had learned from the Coast Guard that his father was believed to have been at the plane’s controls and was alone in the cockpit.
Sonar being used
Meanwhile, a marine unit of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office joined the search for the wreck using side-scan sonar.
If it finds the plane, it could deploy a remote-operated underwater vehicle to try to photograph the site 500 feet to 600 feet below the water’s surface.
The Pierce County unit and a boat from the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office remained in the area Wednesday afternoon, according to Kitsap spokesman Ken Dickinson.
The flight originated Monday at Tacoma Narrows Airport in Gig Harbor. Neither the Coast Guard nor the Kitsap Sheriff’s Office would confirm to the Peninsula Daily News that Alexander was the pilot.
The federal National Transportation Safety Board likewise declined to identify the pilot.
The only aircraft missing from the area at the time of the crash was Alexander’s 2013-vintage RV-7, a two-seat, low-wing, single-engine plane sold in kit form by an Oregon manufacturer.
Its description fits that of a red-and-white aircraft reported in distress over the canal at 1:17 p.m. Monday.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, Alexander was an air transport pilot certified to fly several Boeing and Airbus jet airliners.
He also was certified as a flight engineer on turbojets and as a builder of experimental aircraft, as the RV-7 is classified.
Highest classification
His certification as an airline transport pilot — the highest classification — required Alexander to hold a commercial pilot license, have at least 1,000 hours of flight time and pass an examination covering air law, general aircraft knowledge, flight planning, meteorology, navigation and instrumentation.
He would have had to pass a physical examination that would have disqualified him in cases of heart disease, epilepsy, personality disorder or substance abuse.
The NTSB continues to look into the crash.
Joshua Cawthra, an investigator with the agency, said “there is still a lot to be determined” about what might have caused it.
Cawthra said he expected to release no new information before Friday.
Coast Guard air search
The Coast Guard launched two MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crews and a 45-foot response boat, and diverted the crew of Coast Guard cutter Henry Blake to the reported crash site to conduct the search Monday.
An aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles located a debris field in the waters of Hood Canal about 5 miles northeast of Brinnon and south of Dabob Bay.
A fishing vessel recovered some pieces of wreckage and items that included a driver’s license and personal effects, and turned them over to Kitsap sheriff’s deputies, who in turn gave them to the Coast Guard.
