OFF VERO BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — A day after rescuing nearly a dozen people, U.S. Air Force crews are talking about the mission to save them following the plane plunge.
The group of 11 was hopping across islands near the Bahamas when the plane they were flying in experienced some issues and crashed into the ocean, May 12. On Wednesday, the rescue crews spoke about jumping into action to bring everyone back to safety.
“We weren’t expecting this, but we jumped into action,” said Lieutenant Colonel Matt Johnson, who was part of the Air Force rescue team.
The team was conducting training exercises when they received an emergency alert.
“Yesterday, we were just doing some training here, doing some over-water air drops with some [pararescuemen]. At the end of that training scenario, we got notification from tower that there was a possible downed aircraft,” said Major Elizabeth Piowaty, another member of the rescue team.
Video from the Melbourne airport captured the moment the rescue helicopter carrying all 11 survivors arrived. The survivors were all rescued from the waters about 50 miles off the coast of Vero Beach.
JP Dice, an aviation expert, said the rescue operation is something that in more difficult circumstances would be incredibly challenging to carry out.
“It is very difficult to do that because you’ve got waves to deal with, a lot of times it’s not done successfully,” said Dice.
With how complex the mission was, Dice said the outcome could’ve been significantly worse, crediting the crew for their tremendous efforts.
“You can have an airplane easily flip over, take on water easily. A lot of times, this doesn’t end with success like it did with this particular example,” said Dice.
Officials say all 11 survivors were transported to nearby hospitals after being brought back to land.
The plane the group was flying was a Beechcraft, which they used to travel between multiple Bahamian islands and was in the process of heading to Freeport when disaster struck.
Dice added that another layer that helped make this a successful rescue was the pilot’s effort to bring the plane down. That provided them the best opportunity to survive until help could arrive.
“They’re great airplanes, and also to the pilot’s skill of getting it down in the water safely without it flipping over,” said Dice.
Investigators are working to determine what led to the plane going down.
Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.