Seattle Plane Crash: Coast Guard Searching For 9 Missing Passengers

A return trip from a vacation destination took an ugly turn for a group of people as their plane crashed into a water body, killing one person.

The float plane crashed in Puget Sound, 29 miles from Seattle, Washington, at 6 p.m. ET, Sunday. Nine people, including a child, remained missing as of Monday early morning. The U.S. Coast Guard Service is continuing its search for the missing people.

The agency said the plane was on its way to Renton Municipal Airport from a tourist town in San Juan County, Washington. The plane crashed in Puget Sound's Mutiny Bay, west of Whidbey Island.

It was carrying nine adults and a child. A rescue team has recovered the body of one passenger. A safety zone has been put into effect to help facilitate the search operation.

"A surface safety zone has been placed around the scene of the crash. One deceased individual has been recovered, eight individuals remain unaccounted for. Search updates will be provided as they become available," the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Northwest initially tweeted.

It later clarified that nine people were missing.

Officers from South Whidbey Fire, Island County Sheriff's Office and Snohomish County Sheriff's Office were at the scene to help with the search operations. The cause of the incident is unknown.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the plane was a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Turbine Otter, a single-engine, propeller plane, reported Seattle Times.

The Coast Guard said a helicopter crew, an aircraft crew and four manned coast guard vessels were involved in the search efforts that were being carried out roughly 30 miles northwest of downtown Seattle.

A person who was on another float plane on the same route said, "I'm grateful to friends and family checking in after news of that terrible float plane crash in the waters around Whidbey Island near Seattle. I am fine and safe. A friend and I were on a different float plane that landed in the same hour."

"My heart is so heavy over the news of the other plane (no one from my group, thankfully, but how closely all our fates are connected). Can't make sense of all this. I hope so much that the missing 9 people have survived," she wrote.