hats off to the coast guard! cue music: "I want to get you on a slow boat to China"
read on:
Friday, Jun 09, 2006
Breaking News XML
Posted on Fri, Jun. 09, 2006
Two survive watery landing without injuries
Associated Press
HONOLULU - Two people were rescued Thursday after their small plane from Santa Barbara, Calif., ditched in the ocean about 535 miles northeast of Hilo, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The two were picked up by the container ship Virginius, which was bound for China. A nurse aboard the vessel reported there were no injuries, the Coast Guard said.
The Federal Aviation Administration alerted the Coast Guard's Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Honolulu around 11 a.m. after those aboard the twin-engine Piper Seminole reported engine trouble about 1,000 miles into their flight to Hilo, officials said.
A Coast Guard C-130, which rendezvoused with the ailing aircraft about four hours later, dropped flares on the ocean's surface to form a makeshift runway near the Virginius. The pilot of the small plane used the flares to judge wind speed, direction and altitude, the Coast Guard said.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Brooksann Epiceno said she didn't have the names of those aboard the plane, and didn't know whether the Virginius planned to stop in Hawaii to drop them off. An FAA spokesman also didn't have the names of the two people.