100km/h ocean ditch, sinking life raft: Dramatic details of miraculous escape from plane crash

They have one of Queensland’s great plane crash survival stories to tell yet little is known about the men who walked away from an incredible ocean plunge off the Sunshine Coast. Here’s what we do know now.

Mystery continues to surround the two men who survived a 100km/h plunge into the ocean off the Sunshine Coast before being rescued from a sinking life raft on Friday.

The men, aged 59 and 51, miraculously walked from Sunshine Coast University Hospital just hours after their heavily-fuel-laden plane went down.

It was understood a 1979 Cessna 421C registered to a Moffat Beach address had been headed from Sunshine Coast Airport to Pago Pago in American Samoa.

There’s been no sign of the men after their ordeal and little is known about them.

Aviation experts have praised the skill of the pilot in landing the plane at more than 100km/h without he or his passenger being seriously injured.

“They were very excited and very happy to be alive,” Queensland Ambulance Service flight critical care paramedic Mick O’Brien said.

The plane was heading away from the Coast when it got into difficulty before turning around to the return to the airport before it lost altitude.

The two men told their rescuers the plane bounced once on its belly and then dug in on the second time hitting the ocean. They were not thrown around the cabin at all and were taken to hospital only as a precaution.

The second miracle for the men was that a Royal Flying Doctor Service plane was in the air and able to accurately pinpoint its location.

Davies Aviation – which the Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s aircraft register lists as the registered operator of the plane – is located in the Sunshine Coast Airport precinct.

Graeme Gillies, of Blue Tongue Helicopter Services which is the business next door to Davies Aviation, said he had known the family involved in the incident for a long time.

He had watched them rebuild the Cessna.

“They spent a lot of time and effort on it,” he said.

Graeme Gillies of Blue Tongue Helicopter Services.

“All the small things they just worked and worked and worked and got it all under control.”

Mr Gillies said they took the aircraft for a flight to “check it all out” on Thursday before their big flight.

“Everything was fine,” he said.

Mr Gillies said they were good pilots.

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The dramatic moment the men are winched to safety.

‘I WATCHED THEM TAKE OFF’

Experienced Sunshine Coast pilot and aviation school boss Nathan Higgins said he was taxiing for takeoff at the Sunshine Coast Airport and saw the plane take flight just before it got into trouble.

Mr Higgins said he heard them talking about it being an 11-hour flight.

“I watched them take off. They looked heavy,’’ Mr Higgins said.

He said he expected the plane had a long-range fuel capacity, adding to its weight and the loss of an engine meant the extra weight could’ve caused issues.

The 30-year industry veteran who runs Advanced Flight Theory from Sunshine Coast Airport praised the rapid response of rescue helicopter crews.

“It seemed like they did a fabulous job,’’ he said, amazed that the men had been retrieved so quickly from life rafts after the plane went down.

The brush with disaster happened just before 9am Friday in waters east of Sunshine Coast Airport, after the light plane lost one of its engines.

The two men were found in a life raft which was taking on water

The men were winched from the ocean by the LifeFlight helicopter.

The men were found in a sinking life raft.

‘JUST HAPPY TO BE ALIVE’

RACQ LifeFlight Rescue Helicopter Service Sunshine Coast pilot Andrew Caton said without the flying doctor plane, or if another 10-15 minutes had passed, it could have been a far more difficult operation.

“We would have been searching in possibly a very big ocean for those two men,” he said.

Mr Caton estimated the stricken plane would’ve hit the water at a speed of about 100km/h.

He said the two men were “just happy to be alive” when they were safely on board the rescue helicopter having been winched to safety.

Queensland Ambulance Service flight critical care paramedic Mick O’Brien said the two men had been found inside a sinking life raft when rescuers arrived on scene.

“That life raft was slowly being submerged by water,” he said.

“We were able to lower a rescue basket and singularly extract both of those persons from the sea.”

The tail of the plane was momentarily visible before it disappeared.

A Royal Flying Doctor aircraft had helped rescue crews by circling the area to mark the crash site coordinates, while calm conditions had made for a relatively simple mission.

“The aircraft was full of fuel so it was quite heavy.

“My understanding is that single (remaining) engine was not strong enough to maintain height and they slowly descended into the ocean.”

Pilot Andrew Caton and flight critical care paramedic Mick O'Brien were on scene to rescue two men from the ocean after their light aircraft lost an engine on Friday morning.

One of the men had hopped out of the life raft as it filled with water, but Mr O’Brien said the pair “were in not too bad spirits” throughout the ordeal, signalling a thumbs up to rescue crews as they circled above.

“You don’t generally get an aircraft crash where there is actually no injuries,” Mr O’Brien said.

The view of the rescue from the helicopter.

CRASHED LESS THAN 50KM FROM SUNSHINE COAST AIRPORT

Sunshine Coast Water Police Senior Constable Murray Lyons earlier said the crash happened “about 26 miles (42km)” from the airport.

The pilot turned and was attempting to make it back to the airport when he was forced to ditch into the ocean.

The two men were reportedly seen clinging to a life raft after a Royal Flying Doctor Service (Queensland Section) pilot spotted the plane that ditched into the ocean and “circled the crash so the wreckage could be found”.

Two rescue helicopters were tasked to the area as well as local fishing vessels and rescue crews who were able to pluck the pair from the water at 9.57am.

They had made emergency calls before ditching.

They were rushed to Sunshine Coast University Hospital and discharged unhurt about an hour later.

Constable Lyons described it as a “very good” outcome considering the situation.

“It’s not something you get to practice a lot,” he said.

“They’ve suffered no injuries, which is amazing.”

The plane was forced to ditch in the ocean

The ordeal lasted little more than an hour and water police had been called but were stood down.

Davies Aviation – which the Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s aircraft register lists as the registered operator of the plane – is located in the Sunshine Coast Airport precinct.

They were unable to be contacted on Friday.

Davies Aviation in the Sunshine Coast Airport precinct in Marcoola on the Sunshine Coast.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority sources confirmed the Australian Transport Safety Bureau had taken charge of the investigation into the incident.

A statement issued by the bureau on Friday confirmed the plane had been undergoing a ferry flight from Sunshine Coast Airport to Pago Pago, American Samoa when it had to ditch.

“The crew reported engine issues to air traffic control and an intent to return the aircraft to Sunshine Coast,” the statement reads.

“During the return, the aircraft was unable to maintain altitude and the crew ditched the aircraft onto the ocean, about 50 km from the coast.”

An investigation was under way with the bureau working to determine the technical issues encountered in order to share any safety learnings with other aviators.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority confirmed it had taken control of co-ordination of the rescue efforts after the pilot’s emergency broadcast prior to the “controlled landing on the water”.

In August, 2021, a light plane crash sparked rescue services into action after the aircraft plummeted from the sky and into mudflats in the Pumicestone Passage, near Bribie Island.

It was understood a wing had dislodged in that crash, which claimed the life of the solo pilot.

Originally published as 100km/h ocean ditch, sinking life raft: Dramatic details of miraculous escape from plane crash