Two small planes collide over Commencement Bay

TACOMA — Two small planes collided mid-air over Commencement Bay this afternoon, causing one plane to crash into the water and the second to make an emergency landing at a Puyallup airfield.

Authorities said there were no fatalities.

The two people in the plane that crashed in the water were rescued by boaters, according to the Tacoma police. The passenger, a 74-year-old woman, suffered from mild hypothermia but was otherwise unhurt, police said. The pilot, her son, was not hurt.

A Tacoma Fire Department official estimated the two were in the water for only a few minutes before they were pulled out.

"It was a win-win situation," said Tacoma Fire Capt. Stephen Stock. "It could have been a lot worse."

The second plane landed at Thun Field, about 10 miles southeast of Tacoma, with damage to its landing gear, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said.

The two people on board that plane were not hurt, police said.

The plane crashed off of Jack Hyde Park, police said. Officers on board a Tacoma police boat are now using sonar to try to locate the wreckage of the downed Cessna, which is thought to be under about 200 feet of water, said Petty Officer David Marin, a spokesman for the Coast Guard in Seattle.

There are no reports of pollution, said Marin. At Katie Downs Waterfront Tavern & Eatery on Tacoma's Ruston Way, chef Chris King knew something was going on when he saw customers at four tables "turn their heads in the same direction." It was about 12:45 p.m. and the restaurant was a quarter full.

Though no one saw the mid-air collision, King said customers watched as one plane crashed into the water, about a quarter-mile off the restaurant's deck. A small plane circled above the bay a few times, "then headed off toward Puyallup," he said.

King grabbed a pair of binoculars and watched as two people were brougth to shore by a recreational fishing boat. After delivering the woman and her pilot son to the dock and talking to police, the people on the boat left Commencement Bay and headed off toward Gig Harbor, he said.

"I don't think they would've made it had that fishing boat not been there," King said of the plane's occupants. "Those guys on that boat, they're the heroes."

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.