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11 people rescued after seaplane crashes off Washington coast

(CNN) — Multiple people have been rescued after a seaplane carrying 11 people made an emergency landing Thursday off the coast of Washington, prompting a multi-agency search and rescue operation.

All 11 people, a pilot and 10 passengers, aboard the Kenmore Air seaplane have been accounted for after the plane made an emergency landing and caught fire near Sucia Island in the San Juan Islands, the US Coast Guard told CNN.

Four people were transported to hospitals with serious injuries, CNN affiliate KING reported citing a Kenmore Air spokesperson. One of the four injured passengers was transported in critical condition, San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter said, according to KING.

The victims’ injuries range from “head injuries to broken bones and lacerations,” Peter said.

What prompted the plane to make an emergency landing is unknown.

A Kenmore Air spokesperson told KING the floatplane took off at 4:30 p.m. from Lake Union in Seattle and was heading to Roche Harbor, about 100 miles northwest, when it went down around 45 minutes after take-off.

The US Coast Guard said it received initial reports around 5:25 p.m. local time and immediately launched search and rescue assets, alongside the US Navy, Canadian Coast Guard and local agencies.

CNN has reached out to Kenmore Air, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, the US Navy, the Canadian Coast Guard and the FAA.

Two of the injured passengers have been taken to a hospital in Bellingham, while two others were transported to a hospital in Seattle, the airline told CNN affiliate KOMO. Seven additional passengers were taken to a US Coast Guard base for further evaluation, KOMO said.

“We are grateful that everyone aboard has been accounted for, and our immediate focus is ensuring our passengers and pilot receive the care and support they need,” Kenmore Air CEO David Gudgel said in a statement, according to KING.

“Kenmore Air is fully cooperating with the investigating authorities, and we will continue providing verified information as it becomes available,” Gudgel said.

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Tech titan’s ex-wife fails to win greater share of AI boom in decade-long ‘divorce of the century’

Seoul (CNN) — The AI gold rush is minting new fortunes, but the ex-wife of one of South Korea’s biggest tech titans has failed to win a greater share of his wealth as his company’s stock price has soared.In another twist in the long-running divorce case that’s captivated the nation, billionaire SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won was ordered on Friday to pay his former wife 944 billion won ($644 million) – well below the amount she sought.Chey, who also chairs memory chip giant SK Hynix, split from his wife Roh Soh-yeong, the daughter of former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, more than 10 years ago, when he took the extraordinary step of announcing their marriage was over via a letter to South Korean media.Since then, she’s fought for a bigger slice of his fortune, arguing in multiple court cases that her father contributed to the company’s growth with an early investment – and that her payout should be based on the 2026 valuation of Chey’s SK Group.Roh’s assessment would have meant a payout of billions of dollars, inflated by an AI boom that’s boosted demand for the memory chips made by SK Hynix, a subsidiary of SK Group. But the Seoul High Court ruled that the shares should be valued at the date that the appellate court concluded its hearing in 2024, before AI drove prices up fivefold.The final decision was even less than the previous 2024 ruling, which would have granted Roh about $1 billion in division of property. In October, the Supreme Court overturned the valuation, ruling that Roh’s father’s financial contribution should not be taken into account.In its ruling, the court said the $644 million award was based on an asset division ratio under which Roh receives one-third and Chey retains two-thirds, and that its judgment was in line with the Supreme Court ruling.‘Wedding of the century’When Chey and Roh married in 1988 at the Blue House, the executive office of the president, it was hailed as the “wedding of the century.”But in 2015, Chey confessed in a public letter to having a child with another woman. In the bitter split, they both filed divorce proceedings, and she demanded alimony payment of 300 million won, or about $260,000, as well as 42.29% of Chey’s SK Group stock holdings. The contentious battle that followed has now become known as the “divorce of the century.”In 2024, a high court ruled that Chey pay Roh 2 billion won, or $1.5 million, along with $1.38 trillion won in division of property, or about $1 billion. However, the assessment of assets has come into question since then.In October, the Supreme Court overturned the $1 billion decision, ruling that the money that Roh’s father allegedly gave Chey’s father was illegally obtained.Before Friday’s ruling, Chey had argued that the division of assets should be calculated at the close of the case hearing in April 2024. Roh had asked for the assets to be valued based on a different date in the divorce proceedings in 2026, then worth significantly more.The AI effectWhen Chey publicly declared his marriage was over in 2015, shares of SK Hynix, a subsidiary under SK Group, were trading at about 33,000 won, or about $30.Since then, SK Hynix has grown to become one of the world’s most valuable companies.The memory chipmaker reached a $1 trillion valuation in May, as a surge of investment in artificial intelligence boosted demand for semiconductors needed to run massive new data centers. Earlier this month, SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion in the largest-ever US listing by a foreign company. On Thursday, its US-traded shares closed at $169.50.The AI boom has turned what was once a slow but steady business into one of the world’s hottest tech trades, bolstering wealth for investors and workers of SK Hynix and its rival Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker.That has also launched Chey into a high-profile cabal of tech executives prominently featured on his Instagram under the handle papatonybear. Earlier this year, Chey posted photos and videos of himself with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, all signing a cast on Chey’s arm.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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