Three dead in plane crash near Arlington, WA

A veteran airline pilot was at the controls in a Skagit County light plane crash that killed all three people aboard.

Brenda L. Houston, 47, of Enumclaw, was a pilot for United Airlines, her husband confirmed.

Houston, her 10-year-old daughter Elizabeth Crews of Enumclaw and 54-year-old Dr. Virgil Becker of Auburn all died in the Sunday night crash north of here, the Skagit County sheriff's office said.

"I lost my baby," said Tom Crews, Houston's husband and the little girl's father. "But she's with her mother. She loved flying with her mother, and the two of them are flying together. They're happy. We lost half our family."

Crews said he and Houston met when both were pilots for Pan Am. She continued to fly with United Airlines, he said.

Becker was a board-certified orthopedic surgeon at Cascade Spine Center.

Sheriff's Deputy Will Reichardt said reports indicate that the Cessna 172 was flying from Roche Harbor on San Juan Island to Auburn.

Becker had spent the weekend at his vacation home on San Juan Island with his family, friends told The Seattle Times. Becker's wife and daughter took the ferry home, while Becker hitched a ride with Houston and her daughter, the friends said.

The wreckage was located nine miles north of Arlington, in the area of Bald Mountain. Reichardt said searchers and federal investigators had to cut their way through brush to reach it on Monday.

The cause of the crash was under investigation but answers could take weeks, said Debra Eckrote, National Transportation Safety Board deputy regional chief.