What happened
On June 7, 2024, at approximately 11:40 Pacific daylight time, a Beech A45, registration N268AF, crashed into the water near Deer Harbor, Washington. The flight was being operated under 14 CFR Part 91 for personal use. The pilot was fatally injured.
The aircraft was based at Skagit Regional Airport (BVS) in Burlington, Washington. On the morning of the accident, the pilot arrived at a museum facility where he was stored the aircraft. The pilot intended to perform an "Orcas run," a flight pattern around the San Juan Island archipelago that included passing over his former residence on Orcas Island.
Radar data from the Federal Aviation Administration showed the aircraft departed BVS at 11:13. The aircraft tracked west toward Orcas Island Airport (ORS), where it performed a landing on runway 34 at 11:25. After departing the airport area, the aircraft flew a series of passes along the coastline of the San Juan Channel.
Witnesses near the western shore of Orcas Island observed the aircraft flying north along the shoreline. One witness reported seeing the airplane fly behind trees and then reappear heading south over the water. This witness noted that the left wing dropped and the aircraft began a rapid descent toward the water.
A second witness, located approximately one-third mile north, recorded the aircraft on a mobile phone. The recording showed the aircraft in an inverted position with a slight nose-down attitude. Within three seconds, the aircraft transitioned into an almost vertical dive. Although the aircraft appeared to pull out of the dive and return to a wings-level, upright attitude, it struck the water with its right wingtip and spun across the surface on a northern trajectory.
The investigation
The fuselage was located approximately 1,700 feet west of the final radar target, submerged in about 30 feet of water. Most of the wreckage was recovered from the channel during the week following the accident and has been stored for examination.