2 People Rescued After Engine Trouble Forces Pilot to Land Plane in Ocean Near Hawaii

Photo: Lt j g Daniel Winter/AP/Shutterstock

A pilot instructor and his student were rescued from choppy waters on Saturday after their aircraft went down in the ocean off the coast of Hawaii.

No major injuries were reported in the incident, which occurred just before 6 p.m. about eight miles off the coast of Lanai, the U.S. Coast Guard said in apress release.

Watchstanders with the Coast Guard Joint Rescue Coordination Center received a report that the DA40 Diamond Star aircraft was experiencing engine trouble, and “was likely going to ditch in the water,” the release said.

“As a watchstander this is the type of outcome we want to see with every case,” said Lt. j.g. Makenzy Karnehm, a Coast Guard Joint Rescue Coordination Center watchstander. “Both the Coast Guard and our partners train together for incidents like this and once the call came in we were able to quickly mobilize a robust response and rescue the pilots.”

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“We started a descending spiral over the ocean just looking for the aircraft,” a passenger said. “My wife and two passengers on the left side of the plane spotted the aircraft, then witnessed the aircraft impact the water… We kept losing the plane. It submerged. It was just a white tail in a blue ocean with white caps and two small people with life jackets.”

The wife described the ocean’s waters as “super choppy,” and said their pilot told them to be on the lookout for people in yellow life jackets.

Departments involved in the rescue include the Coast Guard, Maui County Fire Department and Molokai Fire Department, according to the release. The aircraft eventually sank.

The cause of the incident remains under investigation.

source: people.com