Warbird Information Exchange

The Lark of Duluth replica seaplane was extensively damaged in a crash-landing on Superior Bay this morning.

“In the words of the pilot ‘We had a great takeoff but not so good of a landing,’” St. Louis County Undersheriff Dave Phillips said.

Co-owner Mark Marino, 63, was piloting the plane on a brief flight – one of its first – and apparently came in too fast, hitting the water hard and damaging the plane, Phillips said.

Marino was the plane's sole occupant and was not injured. Phillips said a Duluth Airport Authority boat was on the water as a safety measure during the flight and the chase boat immediately picked up Marino.

“Safety was the first priority. They had a chase boat just in case and the just in case happened,” Phillips said.

St. Louis County 911 received calls around 11:35 a.m. that a biplane had crashed in the harbor’s shipping lane near Sky Harbor Airport. Duluth police and fire departments, U.S. Coast Guard, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office and county volunteer rescue squad all responded to the scene.

Luckily there were not needed. After picking up Marino, the airport authority boat began towing the partly submerged plane back to Sky Harbor Airport. By 12:30 p.m. the plane was near the airport’s seaplane ramp, where officials could examine it. Visible damaged included the lower left wing broken away from the plane's fuselage, the front of the plane's fuselage broken up, a broken prop and fabric ripped loose from the underside of the biplane's top wing.

The plane’s fuel system was not compromised and no gas leaked into the harbor, Phillips said. The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the incident Wednesday.The FAA presented the Duluth Aviation Institute with an airworthiness certificate for the airplane on June 27.

Marino and Sandra Ettestad, Marino’s wife and partner in the Lark of Duluth project, declined to talk to media after the crash. Phillips said Marino was devastated by the damage to the plane, a replica of a 1913 flying boat made of wood with fabric-covered wings. The original Lark of Duluth “flying boat” arrived in Duluth by train in June 1913. The plane made its first Duluth flight on June 25, 1913.

It took 5½ years to research, design and build the replica, which starred in this weekend’s first-ever Lark O' The Lake Festival at Sky Harbor. The replica attracted nationwide attention, and it was invited to appear in a vintage aircraft display at the Experimental Aircraft Association Airventure show in Oshkosh, Wis., this summer.