'We didn't die': Pilot recounts crash landing in Atlantic with 10 aboard

The 11 survivors spent roughly five hours on a life raft, before being rescued by the US Air Force off Florida coast. 'We didn't die': Pilot recounts crash landing in Atlantic off Florida coast Watch: 11 people rescued after plane crashes off Florida coast Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Two images: left image of people inside three orange and yellow floating rafts on blue water, right image of grey clouds over blue sea with people on floats bobbing in the water 'We didn't die': Pilot recounts crash landing in Atlantic with 10 aboard A rescue mission with two people wearing life jackets hooked to a cord to lift them up from the ocean. In 25 years of flying, Ian Nixon had never faced anything like the crash that left him and ten passengers stranded for hours in the Atlantic Ocean, waiting to be rescued off Florida's east coast. On Tuesday, during what should have been a routine 20-minute flight between two islands in the Bahamas, Nixon watched one disaster unfold after another - first the navigation system, then the radio, then one engine, and finally the other. "I wasn't able to reach anybody on the radio for a while," Nixon said. "I tried to call Freeport, [Bahamas]; I tried to call Miami radio. I don't know if they were hearing me, but I didn't get a response," Nixon told CBS News, the BBC's US news partner. The plane was headed from Marsh Harbour, in the Bahamas' Abaco Islands, to Freeport, Grand Bahama. With nowhere to land, the Bahamian pilot "ditched" the aircraft in waters roughly 175 miles (289km) north of Miami - a last-resort intentionally executed manoeuvre when no other options are possible. "Once I hit the water, my first thought was, 'We didn't die,'" Nixon said. All 11 aboard the aircraft floated on a life raft for hours What followed was an hours-long ordeal on a life raft, as the pilot and the passengers waited for rescuers to find them. "I told them, 'In the next 10 minutes, a plane is going to come,'" he said. "Then one of the passengers said, 'Hold on, did I hear something?'" It was the distant sound of a helicopter from the US Air Force's 920th Rescue Wing. The unit was on a training mission when it was redirected to assist in the search and rescue effort, after an emergency locator transmitter signal alerted the US Coast Guard about a potential distress situation. "They had already been in the raft for about five hours," Capt Rory Whipple said. "You could tell just by looking at them that they were in distress - physically, mentally and emotionally." A map showing the state of Florida and the Bahamas. Two points mark where the flight originated and was supposed to land. Another point shows where the flight crashed. A fourth point shows the Florida city of Melbourne. The rescuers worked against the clock to bring all the passengers to safety before the helicopters needed to refuel. "I have not known anyone to survive a ditching in the ocean," Maj Elizabeth Piowaty, an aircraft commander who assisted with the rescue, said. " And, from what I've seen, I mean, for all those people to survive is pretty miraculous." All 11 people on board were taken to a Florida hospital. Three suffered minor injuries. "Everybody was rejoicing to know that we get saved because we thought we were going to die," Olympia Outten, one of the passengers on the plane, said afterwards. "That was a scene that [was] just like it was a movie." The Bahamian authorities are investigating the cause of the crash. The blaze had spread more than 7,000 acres and was only 40% contained by Monday night, authorities said. According to the Florida sheriff’s office where Boomer the dog works, the man was safely returned to his home in Lutz, north of Tampa. Officials are investigating what caused the incident at a popular marina in southern Florida. The Communist-run island has seen rare protests over worsening power cuts due to shortages of fuel. A moped had been used in the deadly stray-bullet shooting of a 7-month-old in Brooklyn last month, officials said. "It's just time," he told Fox News, adding that his resignation is effective immediately. The commerce secretary spoke of three interactions with Jeffrey Epstein, including a visit to the financier's home and his island in the Caribbean. President Trump was welcomed by President Xi Jinping in Beijing for what will be a whirlwind tour.