The Beechcraft 300 King Air twin-engine turboprop, on what should have been a 20-minute hop from Marsh Harbour to Freeport in the Bahamas, instead went down about 80 miles east of Melbourne, Florida, on May 12, the U.S. Coast Guard said. By the time rescuers reached them, the 11 Bahamian adults on board had been crammed into a single yellow raft for roughly five hours, with no idea anyone was looking for them and no sign of the plane or any wreckage.
"I have not known anyone to survive a ditching in the ocean," Maj. Elizabeth Piowaty, the aircraft commander on the HC-130J Combat King II that first reached the scene, told reporters at Patrick Space Force Base on May 13. "From what I've seen, for all those people to survive is pretty miraculous," The Guardian reported.
The operation began at about 11 a.m. on May 12, when an emergency locator transmitter on the downed aircraft alerted U.S. Coast Guard Southeast District watchstanders, the 920th Rescue Wing said in a statement. A 920th Rescue Wing HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter was already airborne on a training mission and was redirected to the search. Piowaty's HC-130J joined the effort and dropped a package of food, water and additional flotation to sustain the survivors until the helicopter could begin hoisting them, SCMP reported, citing the Coast Guard.
