Keith Jefferts, founder and President of Northwest Marine Technologies, is back at work at company headquarters on Shaw Island after crashing his de Havilland Beaver airplane into trees, apparently on approach to landing at a Shaw Island Airfield on Jan. 3, 2014.
Jefferts suffered minor injuries. He was transported by Airlift Northwest to Bellingham’s St. Joseph’s hospital, where he was treated for cuts and contusions and released. Jefferts, who is about 75 years old, was reached by telephone at his office on Shaw Island, but had no comment. The cause of the crash is unknown at this time, but, as is their usual practice, the FAA is investigating the incident.
This is the fifth crash since 1992 on Shaw Island listed on an “airplane accidents” website (airplane-accidents.findthedata.org/d/d/Washington/Shaw-Island). Crashes in 1992 and 1994 were listed as fatalities. Two people died in the 1994 incident. The 1992 accident description listed one death and one serious injury. Crashes in 2002 and 2010 were “non-fatal.”
