Eleven passengers aboard a private aircraft that plummeted into Atlantic waters off Florida’s coast were successfully pulled to safety following a dramatic rescue operation, according to U.S. Coast Guard and Air Force officials who spoke Wednesday.
“For all those people to survive is pretty miraculous,” said Air Force Major Elizabeth Piowaty, who commanded one of the rescue aircraft, during a media briefing held the day following Tuesday’s ocean crash.
The twin-engine turboprop aircraft was traveling from the Bahamas carrying 11 adults when it plunged into the ocean approximately 80 miles from Melbourne, Florida. An emergency beacon activated during the crash alerted Coast Guard officials to the incident.
Major Piowaty’s HC-130J Combat King II aircraft, designed for combat search and rescue operations, was conducting training exercises when the emergency call came in, prompting her crew to immediately respond to the rescue mission.
The major reported that her team located the life raft just as storm clouds were moving in, and they dropped supplies including food, water and extra flotation devices to help the crash victims until water rescue teams could arrive.
“The survivors had already been in the raft for about five hours, and we could tell just by looking at them they were in distress, physically, mentally, emotionally,” said Air Force Captain Rory Whipple, one of the pararescuers who participated in the briefing.
A rescue helicopter crew from the Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing, operating from a base near Melbourne, ultimately lifted the survivors to safety using a hovering aircraft. The rescued passengers were then transported to Melbourne Orlando International Airport to receive medical care.
Captain Whipple noted that rescue crews managed to extract all 11 crash survivors using nine separate hoist operations, finishing the mission with only five minutes of fuel remaining before they would have needed to either refuel in mid-air or make an emergency landing.
Neither Air Force nor Coast Guard representatives had immediate details regarding the severity of injuries or medical status of those rescued.
Officials from the Bahamas are conducting an investigation into what caused the crash, though the aircraft reportedly suffered engine problems, according to Coast Guard information. The agency stated that the plane had departed from Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas and was traveling toward Freeport on Grand Bahama Island, a flight path covering roughly 100 miles.
