A US military rescue crew has described the survival of all 11 people from a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean as 'pretty miraculous'. The small Beechcraft twin-propeller aircraft ditched into the sea about 80 miles east of Melbourne, Florida, on Tuesday, prompting a rescue operation by the 920th Rescue Wing from Patrick Space Force Base.
The survivors, all Bahamian adults, had been packed into a single life raft for approximately five hours before rescuers arrived in a Combat King II transport plane and an HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter. Major Elizabeth Piowaty, pilot of the transport plane, said she had never known anyone to survive a ditching in the ocean, calling the outcome 'pretty miraculous'.
The helicopter crew made nine lifts over nearly an hour and a half using a winch and basket to retrieve all survivors from choppy seas. Lieutenant Colonel Matt Johnson, the helicopter pilot, revealed that his aircraft had only about five minutes of fuel remaining when the last person was hoisted up, a moment he described as 'bingo time'—the point at which they must leave the scene due to low fuel.
The survivors were flown to Melbourne airport where ambulances awaited. One survivor, Olympia Outten, who was travelling with her son and niece, said the pilot appeared to have got off course in stormy weather and fuel ran out. She recounted how her son helped free her from her seatbelt after the plane hit the water, and she prayed for rescue.
The US Coast Guard was alerted by the plane's emergency beacon, which activated on impact. The aircraft was reportedly on an internal flight between Marsh Harbour and Grand Bahama in the Bahamas when it ditched. The cause of the emergency is under investigation.
