loading…
Overboard when landing, the US Navy reconnaissance plane crashed into the sea. Photo/ABC News
HONOLULU – A United States (US) Navy plane flying in rainy weather crashed into Kaneohe Bay after landing over the runway at a military base in Hawaii. Luckily the nine passengers were not injured.
Local Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Ryan Fisher said his party responded to reports of the incident but the rescue operation was immediately cancelled.
“It looks like all parties involved have been saved,” he said as quoted by ABC News, Tuesday (21/11/2023).
US Marine Corps spokesman Sergeant Orlando Perez did not yet have information regarding the cause of the P-8A plane leaving the runway at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
A photo taken by witness Diane Dircks showed the plane in the waters off the coast, a scene reminiscent of the 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson” when a passenger jet piloted by Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger made an emergency landing in the New York River. All 155 people on board survived.
The P-8A and Airbus A320 that Sullenberger piloted were roughly the same size.
Dircks and his family had just returned to the dock after rainy weather cut short their pontoon boat trip when his daughter saw the plane in the water.
“We ran to the end of the pier, and I took some pictures,” he said.
Dircks, who was visiting from Illinois, said his daughter brought binoculars for bird watching, so she could see the planes and rescue boats arriving.
