For five hours, the 11 survivors of a plane crash off the coast of Florida floated on a life raft, with no way to call for help or any idea if anyone would come to their rescue. As the thunderstorm approached, they huddled under the tarp, looking for any protection it might provide.
Then, US Army search and rescue crews appeared in the sky, members of those crews recounted during a news conference on Wednesday.
“You could tell just by looking at them that they were in physical, mental and emotional distress,” said Air Force Capt. Rory Whipple, a combat rescue specialist, who jumped into the water and swam to the survivors. “You have to imagine the emotional injuries they went through there, not knowing if anyone was going to save them.”
Authorities said the plane, a Beechcraft 300 King Air, was en route from Marsh Harbour, on Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, to Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport when it experienced engine failure on Tuesday. The pilot dropped the plane into the water about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off Vero Beach, Florida, and was able to transfer the 10 passengers, three of whom had minor injuries, to a yellow lifeboat.
Air Force Maj. Elizabeth Piwati credited the effort, saying the pilot would have been concerned about ocean swells and slowed the plane as much as safely possible before impact.
“I’ve never known anyone to survive an ocean trench,” said Biwati, who flew the HC-130J Combat King II aircraft that assisted in the rescue. “From what I’ve seen, it’s quite a miracle that all these people survived.”
The downed plane’s emergency beacon alerted the US Coast Guard to its location. At the time, the Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing already had an air crew conducting a training mission aboard an HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter. The crew has been redirected to assist in the search.
After locating the survivors, her plane flew overhead and dropped a survival kit that included two additional rafts, food and water, Bewati said. The survivors were then able to spread out, and the HH-60W aircrew, including Whipple, was able to hoist them to safety in 3 to 5 feet (1 to 1.5 m) swell, lifting the last survivor just minutes before the helicopter had to refuel.
Biwati said that there was no trace of the downed plane.
All 11 survivors were airlifted to await emergency medical services at Melbourne Orlando International Airport, authorities said. All of them were reported to be in stable condition.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said it would investigate the incident.