UPDATE: Pilot Safe After Ditching Plane NE of Maui | Maui Now
Original Post
The Coast Guard responded to a distress call from a single-engine aircraft running out of fuel approximately 975 miles north of Hawai‘i Island today.
The pilot contacted the Hawai‘i National Guard at 12:30 p.m., reporting that his aircraft had approximately three hours of fuel remaining and he would be ditching the plane 230 miles northeast of Maui.
The Coast Guard launched crews aboard an HC-130 Hercules airplane and an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Barbers Point.
As of 2:35 p.m. today, the aircraft was 529 miles northeast of Hawai‘i Island.
The Hercules was expected to rendezvous with the plane around 3:20 p.m.
The aircraft is reported as a single engine Cirrus SR-22 with one person aboard.
If this information is correct, the pilot was flying this aircraft at over 200kts per hour, which is quite a high speed for an SR22, flying the east-to-west direction with approx. headwinds of 20-30kts.
Was the aircraft being overstressed?
The max. Cruise speed is 183kts.
WP