Vintage Boeing Stratoliner Crashes In Elliott Bay

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By By KOMO Staff & News Services

Summary

All four on board have been rescued and are OK; Plane went down in the water near Duwamish Head in West Seattle; KOMO 4 has video of plane crashing.

Story Published: Mar 28, 2002 at 11:33 AM PDT

Story Updated: Jul 24, 2009 at 10:54 AM PDT

Vintage Boeing Stratoliner Crashes In Elliott Bay
WEST SEATTLE - A 1940s passenger plane once used by Haitian dictator Papa Doc Duvalier and now owned by the Smithsonian Institution crash-landed Thursday in Elliott Bay near the Duwamish Head along West Seattle All four people aboard were rescued safely.

The only Boeing 307 Stratoliner still in existence came down at about 1:15 p.m. near West Seattle, across Elliott Bay from downtown. It landed in the water near a barge and Salty's Restaurant.

Many describe the landing as a heroic -- a "perfect water landing" according to one witness who is a pilot himself. He said the pilot knew exactly what he was doing, and stalled the plane right before impact, which let it skid along the water surface.

The pilot is 60-year-old Richard K. "Buzz" Nelson of Seattle. Also on board was Mark Kempton, a Boeing flight test manager. Both were part of a KOMO 4 News story last August when the plane -- newly refurbished -- went on display.

Also on board was Mike Carriker, who is an accomplished Boeing test pilot. He was interviewed just last week on KOMO 4 News as he flew Boeing's 737-900 technology demonstrator airplane: A plane equipped with the company's newest high-tech devices.

But right before the landing, those on the ground were pretty nervous.

"At one point we were wondering if he was going to get us," said resident Bob Horton, who watched the landing from his deck. "He was sputtering and kept getting lower."

The four men on board were standing on the plane's wings when rescuers arrived from a nearby Coast Guard station. They were checked at Harborview Medical Center and soon released.

The plane began to sink, though rescue boats towed it closer to shore. It came to rest in 60 feet of water, a fire department spokeswoman said, with its nose and wings underwater and its tail in the air.

The four-propeller plane took off from Boeing Field-King County International Airport at about 12:30 p.m., and the pilot tried to return about 30 minutes later, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus said.

He was cleared to land, but called the tower to say he had a "gear indication" - referring apparently to a problem with his landing gear - and was going back up to figure out what the problem was, Fergus said.

The pilot again called the tower and asked for permission to land, which was granted. Then he radioed mayday.

Fergus said he didn't know what caused the crash.

Officials at Seattle's Museum of Flight identified the plane as a 1940s-era Stratoliner, the first commercial plane with a pressurized cabin. It can hold 33 passengers and a crew of five.

The plane was based on the airframe and wings of the World War II B-17 Flying Fortress, but there was no market for the aircraft during the war and immediately afterward. Only 10 were built.

The aircraft was delivered to Pan American Airways in 1940. It once served as the presidential plane of the notorious Duvalier, Smithsonian spokeswoman Claire Brown said.

Boeing employees came across the plane at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, Ariz., and the company offered to restore it. Boeing flew it back to Seattle in 1994 and it was rolled out of the factory last summer.

The Smithsonian bought it from a private owner who had converted it into a crop duster.

It was to be the centerpiece of a Smithsonian exhibit scheduled to open at Washington Dulles International Airport in 2003. The plane is owned by the National Air and Space Museum.

For More Information:

EAA Aviation Center -- www.eaa.org

Home Video Of Plane Crashing:

KOMO 4 News has obtained home video of the Stratoliner crashing into Elliott Bay.