Sydnie and I had never met, but thats normal when youre putting in hours. When we took off, all signs were normal. After we climbed to 2,000 feet, the plane started to rumble a bit, but it wasnt enough of a concern to turn back. After about an hour in the airat the widest part of the channel between Maui and Konathe right engine went out. Sydnie got on the radio to tell air traffic control that we may need assistance. Then the left engine went. We declared emergency right away. We were basically gliding.
We werent that highI think about 3,000 feetwhich doesnt give you much time. I remember looking out at the ocean as we were descendingit just got bigger and bigger and bigger. I dont know how we didnt die on impact. We were probably approaching at 70, 80 miles per hour, and the plane only had lap belts, no shoulder straps. Sydnie said that she landed it like a regular plane on the ground. She did an amazing job.
As we were getting our bearings, the water was already halfway up the dashboard and gushing in the door. We exited onto the wing and next thing you know, the plane is gone. But I wasnt really panicking yet, because I was thinking, We just survived a plane crash, and the Coast Guard knows where we went down.
We crashed at about 3:15 p.m. and saw the first rescue aircraft about an hour and a half later. There were a few planes circling, and then a couple of helicopters. But the water was really roughsix-foot whitecapsso they couldnt see us. One plane flew right over us. After the sixth or seventh pass, I started to lose hope. Then the air cartridge on my life vest fell off and it deflated.
We realized we had to do this on our own. The good thing about the Big Island is that its got two large volcanoes, both nearly 14,000 feet. So even though we were about 25 miles away when we landed, we could see land. By the time we decided to swim it was dark, but we could see lights on the island. We just switched gears and agreed to keep each other positive.
After swimming for a while, I was getting to a point where I couldnt even keep my head above water. This was my lowest moment. Then Sydnie noticed something on my vestI hadnt pulled the toggle to inflate one side. I was like, Holy shit, Im back!
Then Sydnie swam into a massive jellyfish. She screamed in pain and rolled onto her back, her eyes closed. She was breathing heavily, and she wasnt responding. She slowly came back, and then she just switched on. She said, We gotta get outta here.
At first light, we got the sense of how far wed swum. It was amazing. We even began talking about the first meal we were going to eat after we made it to shore. Thats when we saw the shark, about ten feet below us, probably six or seven feet long. It made a big slow circle around us, like you see in movies. It stuck around for about 30 minutes and then disappeared.
Eventually, we saw a Coast Guard helicopter, but it flew past. Then I heard one behind us and, without even looking, I knew it was coming for us. Once the guy got down to us, he said, Man, we are so happy to see you.
The crazy thing is, we were probably five miles from shore. We would have arrived around sunset, but we definitely would have made it on our own.
As told to Will Cockrell.