SEATTLE — U.S. investigators have confirmed that a mechanical issue caused the seaplane crash that killed 10 people off an island in Washington last year.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the Sept. 4, 2022, crash, said Thursday that a single component of a critical flight control system failed, causing an unrecoverable, near-vertical descent into Puget Sound’s Mutiny Bay near Whidbey Island.
About 85 percent of the aircraft was recovered from the ocean floor several weeks after the crash.
NTSB investigators examining the wreckage found that a component called an actuator, which moves the plane’s horizontal tail and controls the airplane’s pitch, had become disconnected. That failure would have made it impossible for the pilot to control the airplane.
