NTSB: Single part failure caused deadly seaplane crash off Whidbey Island

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have released their final report on the crash of a seaplane that killed 10 people off Whidbey Island last year.

The NTSB found that the September 4, 2022 crash into Mutiny Bay, which killed nine adults and a child, was caused by a single component failure. Initial findings from the scene showed that the crash was caused by the plane’s actuator, which moves the plane’s horizontal tail. The report confirmed that the actuator became disconnected and caused the crash.

More news: New lawsuit filed in fatal 2022 Whidbey Island plane crash

The disconnected actuator would have made it “impossible to control the plane,” the NTSB report found.

The plane was a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter turboprop operated by Renton-based Friday Harbor Seaplanes. Approximately 65 of these planes operate in the U.S., including many of them in the Puget Sound region.

Jennifer Homendy, the 44th member of NTSB, is requesting the FAA and its Canadian counterparts to require all operators of de Havilland Canada DHC-3 planes to inspect a device in the tail that came apart in the plane that crashed.

“The potential for a catastrophic loss of control of another airplane warrants immediate and mandatory action,” Homendy said. “Our recommendation is that they look at the horizontal stabilizer actuator lock ring and make sure that it’s in place and secure.”

NTSB in its final report recommends that the Federal Aviation Administration and Transport Canada require operators of those planes to install a secondary locking feature, so “this kind of tragedy never happens again,” Homendy said.

Four lawsuits have been filed against the operators and manufacturers of the seaplane. Representatives of the victims allege in one lawsuit the crash was “entirely preventable” and that the aircraft should have been inspected and maintained more thoroughly.