Almost a week after crash landing into Seattle’s Elliott Bay, pilot Brendan Ross is flying once again.
Ross escaped his sinking plane and was rescued by boaters on Thursday evening after he put the aircraft into the water in what he described as an engine failure.
He hurt his mouth in the crash, but his injury is healing.
In a quick flight on Tuesday, Ross and a friend took off from Auburn and made a quick stop at King County International Airport (formerly Boeing Field) before returning to the Auburn Municipal Airport.
Wearing a jacket and glasses that he pulled out of the once sunken plane, Ross talked to KOMO News about the moment and the importance of flying again.
It’s probably like a lot of other traumatic incidents where the longer you sit on it, you let those feelings naturally develop," Ross said. "It’s good following up with your typical mental health stuff and talking it out, but unique to flying across the board, the common advice is get back in a plane. Get flying again as soon as you can because that’s going to clear that out of your mind and reassure yourself that you know you’re a good pilot. You know what to do. It was therapeutic. I know that sounds wild.
Ross also flew near the spot where his plane went down last week.
“I remember as we were on approach to Boeing Field, I was looking at the same spot in Elliott Bay," Ross said. "Looking right where the clipper comes out, thinking, 'Man, that’s where it happened. I don’t think I’m going to go there today, though,’”
Ross thanked his friend for giving him the opportunity to fly again, “and flying out to Boeing Field was a good sense of closure. Talking to the controllers again saying, ‘These are the same guys I was talking to a few days ago and saying, hey, look I’m still here, they’re still here. Going to keep flying, world keeps turning.’”
He also got a chance to see the plane after it was pulled from the water.
“Elliott Bay smells about as bad as it tasted,” he said, laughing as he described the damaged plane. “I was able to get stuff out. It is crusted in salt. Most of it doesn’t work anymore."
Ross called the experience surreal.
“It breaks your heart seeing it like that. It got me from one corner of the country to the other”, as Ross reminisced on the journey he took in the plane from Florida to Washington, before the crash.
Ross started as an air traffic controller for six years, and for the last few years has been a local pilot and an instructor. Despite the crash, his aviation journey will not end. He’s going to the airlines next.
“My airline’s been super supportive, even though I haven’t even started Day 1 yet,” Ross said. “I’m staying here in Seattle. Seattle is home. There’s not a more beautiful place in the world to fly.”
The NTSB is investigating the crash.
“It has been recovered to an offsite facility for further analysis by NTSB investigators," it said. "The preliminary report, which includes all the factual information learned to date, is expected to publish 15 days after the accident. It will not contain a probable cause—that will come in a final report which can take 12-24 months to be completed.”