BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A woman who survived when the small plane in which she was traveling went down in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday said Thursday that she didn’t think she and the others on board would make it through the frightening experience alive.
And she said she is relieved and grateful to all who helped bring them to safety — the search-and-rescue units who found them and the doctors and nurses who cared for them.
She was one of 11 passengers who clung to a life raft for hours not knowing if help was coming — praying that someone would.
“All we have to do is pray. The best thing we can do is pray,” said Olympia Outten, who added that she wasn’t even supposed to be on the short charter flight from Nassau to Freeport in the Bahamas because of a ticketing error.
Outten was travelling with her two sons and niece on the flight Tuesday when the plane flew through a storm just into the 20-minute trip.
“He called the copilot and said, ‘We are lost.’ He could not find Freeport,” Outten recalled hearing.
After the 20 minutes were up, the crew announced they were lost.
Not wanting to run out of fuel and crash, they decided to land on the water. They were about 80 miles off the coast of Melbourne.
Everyone on board was trying to get out of the plane after it splashed into the ocean, and Outten’s niece tried to help her.
“And she said, ‘Hand me your hand,’ and she brought me on the wing. She was on the wing, and everyone was in the water, flapping in the water, and my son, they was looking for the raft,” Outten said.
Outten said she thought she was dead and was praying the entire time.
The group floated for five hours.
Airmen from the elite 920th Rescue Wing out of Patrick Space Force Base located the twin-engine turboprop plane using its emergency locator transmitter signal. Working with the U.S. Coast Guard and Air Force, they hoisted the 11 survivors to safety.
“They dive down. They save all of us,” Outten recalled.
Ten survivors are being treated for minor injuries at Health First Holmes Medical Center., the only trauma center in Brevard County. One is at Orlando Health Melbourne Hospital.
Holmes’ trauma team frequently trains for mass casualty events like this one.
“We’ve prepared for this. We’ve practiced this drill, so when it happens, we are ready to give the best care possible,” said Dr. Scott Zenoni, a trauma surgeon at Holmes Regional Medical Center.
The incident remains under investigation.
Questions remain about whether the plane got hit by lightning and whether its navigation systems shorted out or there was some other type of mechanical failure.