History: Jet plane crashes in Shoreline

Photo courtesy MOHAI

By David Carlos

April 21, 1962. It was a beautiful spring Saturday in the Puget Sound area. Dry, partly sunny, with an expected high of 62 degrees.

It was the day the Seattle World’s Fair opened.

Around Noon, President John F. Kennedy officially started the celebration from his vacation home in Florida by pressing a telegraph key. Bells then rang throughout the Seattle Center grounds, followed by a U.S. Air Force squadron of 10 jets flying overhead.

The first fly-by went off without a hitch.

The second fly-by did not.

Example of an F-102 Delta-Dagger (source Airplanes Online)

One of the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger jets developed engine trouble at 1,500 feet. The pilot was not able to restart power, no matter how hard he tried.

Sensing little chance of a clean landing, he aimed the bird for Lake Washington.

He ejected safely. But in doing so, the plane jolted in a different direction.

It missed the lake by three miles and crashed near the border of Mountlake Terrace and Shoreline.

The plane hit an empty house owned by the Rutkas family.

Fortunately, they were vacationing in Canada at the time.

But the plane also hit a second home owned by Raymond and Lillian Smith. They were in two separate rooms. Both died instantly. They were 68 and 63, respectively.

Photos courtesy Worthpoint. com

Five other homes were damaged by fire and debris.

Because it was a Saturday, most neighborhood children were elsewhere — some at the movies, others hunting for Easter eggs at a church. As a result, none were caught in the disaster.

As emergency crews rushed in, military officials and investigators surrounded the area to begin piecing together evidence. No photographs were allowed for security reasons. But some people took snapshots anyway.

Neighbors described the loud noise, the heat, and the strewn wreckage of that day.

It was a day that unfolded far differently than anyone expected.

Drone photo by David Carlos 1/22/26

Epilogue:

• The Rutkas were reimbursed $2,000-3,000 by the government. That’s around $32,000 today. They refused to sue the government but were thereafter emotionally devastated.
• The pilot, 33-year-old Captain Joseph W. Wildt, was cleared of any wrongdoing. The official ruling was that his plane suffered mechanical failure. However, he was guilt-ridden over the deaths of the Smiths. Not much is known about his life afterward.
• The crash location was casually referred to by the press as being in Mountlake Terrace. But it was actually in Shoreline, near the intersection of NE 200th St & 24th Ave NE.

Sources: History Link, MOHAI, KW3, Shoreline Area News, Aviation Safety, “Mountlake Terrace: A History of Four Square Miles” (Randal Gravelle).