The charter flight was transiting between two islands in the Bahamas when it lost power in both engines.
Military assets from both the US Air Force and Coast Guard rescued 11 people from the Atlantic Ocean after their Beechcraft King Air 300 turboprop suffered an inflight emergency off the coast of Florida.
The incident took place on 12 May, roughly 50nm offshore from Melbourne, Florida. The twin-engined turboprop was headed to Grand Bahama International airport in Freeport on a chartered flight from Marsh Harbour airport when it experienced a cascade of system failures, according to the pilot.
Bahamian national Ian Nixon told American broadcaster CBS his aircraft experienced back-to-back engine failures, as well as radio and navigation system failures, forcing him to carry out an emergency water landing on what is normally only a 20min flight.
After losing power, Nixon vectored the King Air out to sea rather than attempting to set down on land. He says he declared an emergency but was unsure if any air traffic control received his transmission because of the radio failure.
Nixon, who says he has been flying for 25 years, ultimately ditched the Textron Aviation-made aircraft some 152nm (280km) north of Miami.
All 10 passengers onboard survived the water landing and, along with their pilot, were able to get into emergency life rafts. After several hours floating at sea, a Sikorsky HH-60W combat rescue helicopter from the US Air Force’s 920th Rescue Wing located the life rafts, alerted by an automatic emergency beacon aboard the King Air.
Photos released by the Pentagon indicate the HH-60W crew used a hoist system to recover the King Air passengers from the rafts. The specialised rescue helicopter was already in the air on a training flight when the emergency call to assist came in from the Coast Guard, according to the air force.
The HH-60W crew was assisted by fixed-wing search aircraft, including one of the rescue wing’s own Lockheed Martin HC-130Js and a Leonardo C-27 from the US Coast Guard station in Clearwater, Florida.
The victims had been in the water for approximately 5h when the rescue helicopter located their position.
“I have not known anyone to survive a ditching in the ocean,” air force Major Elizabeth Piowaty, an HC-130J pilot who assisted with the rescue, said at a post-mission press conference. “For all those people to survive is pretty miraculous.”
The 920th Rescue Wing is based at Patrick Space Force Base just south of Cape Canaveral and specialises in combat search and rescue missions, including downed pilot recovery.
Despite being primarily combat-focused, the Pentagon says the 920th “routinely” conducts rescue operations and training missions in support of civil authorities and humanitarian response efforts. The unit previously provided rescue support to NASA’s now-defunct Space Shuttle programme.
Air force pararescue personnel provide astronaut recovery support to active manned spaceflight programmes, including NASA’s recent Artemis II lunar launch and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon platform.
Although the cause of the King Air 300 crash is under investigation, it is not immediately clear which agency is taking the lead due to jurisdictional issues.
The Bahamas Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority tells CBS that it would not be conducting the investigation because the incident occurred outside the island country’s territorial waters.
“At this stage, the AAIA will not speculate on the cause,” the Bahamian agency said on 14 May. “Any such matters will fall within the scope of the official investigation conducted by the appropriate investigating authority once determined.”
However, in its own 14 May statement, the Pentagon said Bahamian authorities will be responsible for investigating the cause of the incident.
The crash occurred within the USA’s exclusive economic zone but outside American territorial waters, which only extend 12nm from the coastline.
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