A US military rescue crew has described the ‘pretty miraculous’ survival of all 11 people they saved from a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean, as they revealed their own aircraft had only five minutes of fuel remaining when the last survivor was hoisted to safety.
Members of the 920th Rescue Wing, based at Patrick Space Force Base in Florida, raced on Tuesday to reach the passengers and crew of a small Beechcraft twin-propeller aircraft that ditched into the sea about 80 miles east of Melbourne. The survivors, all Bahamian adults, had been packed into a single life raft for about five hours before help arrived.
Major Elizabeth Piowaty, pilot of the Combat King II transport plane, said: ‘I’ve not known anyone to survive ditching in the ocean. And from what I’ve seen, for all those people to survive is pretty miraculous, and then get in the raft all together.’
Lieutenant Colonel Matt Johnson, who piloted the HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter, revealed that his aircraft reached ‘bingo time’ – the point at which fuel is critically low – just as the last survivor was lifted. He said the helicopter had in-flight refuelling capability but that would have delayed getting survivors, some needing urgent medical attention, to shore.
Captain Rory Whipple, who was winched down to the raft, said the survivors were in distress, physically, mentally and emotionally, unaware if rescue was coming. ‘They didn’t even know that we were coming until we were directly overhead,’ he said. Survivor Olympia Outten, travelling with her son and niece, said she was trapped in the sinking plane and her son helped free her. She sobbed as she recalled praying: ‘God, save us, let someone see us.’
The cause of the emergency is under investigation. The aircraft was reportedly on an internal flight between Marsh Harbour and Grand Bahama when it ditched.
