A US Navy plane flying in rainy weather on Monday overshot a runway at a military base in Hawaii and splashed into Kaneohe Bay, but all nine aboard were uninjured, authorities said.
The US Coast Guard responded, but rescue operations were quickly called off, spokesperson Petty Officer Ryan Fisher said.
“It sounds like all parties involved were rescued,” he said.
Photo: AFP
US Marine Corps spokesperson Gunnery Sergeant Orlando Perez had no information about what caused the P-8A aircraft to go off the runway at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
A photo taken by witness Diane Dircks showed the plane in water just offshore, a sight reminiscent of the 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson, ” when a passenger jet piloted by Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger made an emergency landing on the New York river. All 155 people aboard survived.
The P-8A and the Airbus A320 that Sullenberger piloted are roughly the same size.
Dircks and her family had just returned to the dock after rainy weather cut their pontoon boat trip short when her daughter noticed the plane in the water.
“We went running over to the end of the dock, and I took some pictures,” she said.
Dircks, who is visiting from Illinois, said her daughter keeps a pair of binoculars on her for birdwatching, so she was able to see the plane and the rescue boats arriving.
“It was unbelievable,” she said.
The Honolulu Fire Department received a 911 call for a downed aircraft shortly after 2pm, spokesperson Malcolm Medrano said in an e-mail.
It was cloudy and rainy at the time. Visibility was about 1 mile (1.6km), said Thomas Vaughan, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Honolulu.
The P-8A is often used to hunt for submarines and for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. It is manufactured by Boeing and shares many parts with the 737 commercial jet.
The plane belongs to the Skinny Dragons of Patrol Squadron 4 stationed at Whidbey Island in Washington state.
Patrol squadrons were once based at Kaneohe Bay, but now deploy to Hawaii on a rotational basis.
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