WHIDBEY ISLAND STATION, Wash. — The Island County Coroner's office has confirmed the body discovered in Mutiny Bay on Sunday as 29-year-old Gabrielle "Gabby" Hanna, one of the 10 victims of the Sept. 4 floatplane crash.
Dave von Beck, who is Hanna's father, shared a statement Tuesday:
"Our family and friends are just heartsick with grief at the loss of our beautiful Gabby, who at 29 should have had many decades of a wonderful life still to be lived."
Hanna attended Garfield High School in Seattle and Occidental College in Los Angeles. She competed in swimming at Occidental and majored in philosophy, according to a team bio on the college's website.
The plane, flying from Friday Harbor to Renton Municipal Airport in a scheduled commercial commuter flight, crashed in Mutiny Bay. Data and witness reports indicated the floatplane took a nosedive before plummeting, with 10 people on board. All nine passengers and the pilot are presumed dead.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are still working to recover wreckage from the crash.
The NTSB and NOAA used multibeam and side scan sonar Thursday to map and survey the sea floor as part of their search. The agencies identified targets where they expect to find airplane debris.
The next step will be to confirm whether those targets are or are not airplane debris using a remotely operated vehicle, according to NTSB spokesperson Jennifer Gabris.
As part of the mapping effort, the agencies collected data for a 1.75- by 0.75-mile area, using the floatplane's last known location, time of entry, tides and currents to narrow down the search area.
Water in the area where the plane crashed can be hundreds of feet deep. Terry Ney, deputy chief of operations for the South Whidbey Fire EMS said his crew clocked depths between 100 to 200 feet during Sunday’s recovery. The NTSB previously said their search area is between 100 to 300 feet deep.
The NTSB said a normal investigation will take between 18 and 24 months, but they aren’t certain how long this will take as they haven’t located the plane yet. A spokesperson said they are "confident" the plane will be located.
How the aircraft will be recovered will depend on what depth the aircraft is located at and what condition it's located in. Investigators have yet to find out if the aircraft broke up in the water or how widely the debris might be spread.
The United States Coast Guard has confirmed the identities of all 10 victims on board.
Download our free KING 5 app to stay up-to-date on news stories from across western Washington.