Overview
- A U.S. Coast Guard search with a nearby military helicopter saved eleven people about 80 miles off Melbourne, Florida, after a small propeller plane from the Bahamas went down at sea.
- The group clung to a life raft for about five hours as a storm moved in and they had no working way to call for help.
- A helicopter training out of Patrick Space Force Base reached them first, dropped food, water, and two spare rafts, then rescue swimmers winched everyone into the aircraft.
- The survivors were flown to a hospital on the U.S. mainland and no deaths were reported.
- Bahamas authorities opened the crash inquiry and say early findings point to an engine failure that led the pilot to land on the water, an outcome an Air Force commander called highly unusual for full survival.