‘Truly Miraculous’ Rescue-at-Sea Prevents Tragedy After Plane Crash in the Bahamas: CNN

A U.S. Air Force pilot described the successful rescue of 11 plane crash survivors off the coast of the Bahamas as “pretty miraculous,” CNN reported Thursday.

Aviation reporter Pete Muntean said the plane was making a 100-mile flight between Florida and Freeport in the Bahamas so the passengers could vote.

One survivor said the pilot got off course while trying to avoid storms, then lost GPS navigation and started running low on fuel, which caused both engines to quit, forcing the pilot to ditch in the Atlantic.

“All 11 people on board then spent five hours floating in the open ocean waiting to be rescued,” Muntean said. “This is some of the incredible video and new images from the 920th rescue wing of the United States Air Force. The Coast Guard says it first received a distress signal from that downed plane around 11 A.M. Eastern Time on Tuesday. Incredibly, the crew of an Air Force C-130 rescue plane was already nearby on a water rescue training mission that clearly turned into the real thing.”

“The C-130 crew says they quickly found the survivors floating together in a single life raft roughly 80 miles east of Melbourne, Florida,” Muntean continued. “The crew dropped extra rafts, food, water, emergency gear. Also helped dispatch an emergency rescue helicopter from the Air Force. The Air Force said the weather was deteriorating pretty quickly and thunderstorms were nearby — seas between three and five feet. The rescue crew hovered about 10-feet above the water while rescue men hoisted the survivors up to the helicopter.”

At a post-rescue press conference, survivor Olympia Oughton recounted how she prayed for rescue.

“I said, lord, save us, lord, save us. Let someone see us. Lord, let someone see us. Because to be able to see, to be on the water and to be out there for five hours, and then seeing no line and just seeing long black water,” Oughton said of the terrifying ordeal.

Oughton said everyone on board the raft started crying and celebrating when they spotted the rescuers.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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