A floatplane made an emergency landing in the water off Ebey’s Landing on Central Whidbey Sunday.

It’s unclear just went wrong, but the small single-engine aircraft apparently touched down as the result of engine trouble, said John Nesset, owner of Port Townsend-based Captain Jack’s Salvage.

Nesset said he arrived on the scene in his 50-foot emergency towing vessel at 6:15 p.m. There he found the Beaver aircraft in the water just off Perego’s Lagoon. The pilot and several others were working to fend it off the rocky shoreline.

It was decided that the plane should be towed to a floatplane dock in Port Hadlock, about nine miles away, but the depth of the water made it difficult to get a line to the aircraft.

“We shot a Lyle gun that fires a messenger line” from about 700 feet away, Nesset said.

Although building wind and waves made for a slow and bumpy ride across Admiralty Inlet, the tow was uneventful and both boat and plane reached Port Hadlock safely at about 9 p.m., he said.

Attempts to reach the aircraft owner for this story were unsuccessful.