A Hawaii official says all 9 individuals aboard a U.S. Navy airplane that overshot a runway have escaped harm
HONOLULU — A Navy airplane flying in wet climate overshot a runway Monday at a army base in Hawaii and splashed into Kaneohe Bay, however all 9 aboard had been unhurt, authorities mentioned.
The Coast Guard responded, however rescue operations had been rapidly referred to as off, mentioned Petty Officer Ryan Fisher, a Coast Guard spokesperson. “It seems like all events concerned had been rescued,” he mentioned.
Marine Corps spokesperson Gunnery Sgt. Orlando Perez had no details about what triggered the P-8A plane to go off the runway at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
A photograph taken by witness Diane Dircks confirmed the airplane in water simply offshore, a sight paying homage to the 2009 “ Miracle on the Hudson ” when a passenger jet piloted by Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger made an emergency touchdown on the New York river. All 155 individuals aboard survived.
The P-8A and the Airbus A320 that Sullenberger piloted are roughly the identical dimension.
Dircks and her household had simply returned to the dock after wet climate reduce their pontoon boat journey quick when her daughter seen the airplane within the water.
“We went working over to the top of the dock, and I took some photos,” she mentioned.
Dircks, who’s visiting from Illinois, mentioned her daughter retains a pair of binoculars on her for birdwatching, so she was in a position to see the airplane and the rescue boats arriving.
“It was unbelievable,” she mentioned.
The Honolulu Hearth Division acquired a 911 name for a downed plane shortly after 2 p.m., spokesperson Malcolm Okay. Medrano mentioned in an e mail. It was cloudy and wet on the time. Visibility was about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers), mentioned Thomas Vaughan, a Nationwide Climate Service meteorologist in Honolulu.
The P-8A is commonly used to hunt for submarines and for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. It’s manufactured by Boeing and shares many elements with the 737 industrial jet.
The airplane belongs to the Skinny Dragons of Patrol Squadron 4 stationed at Whidbey Island in Washington state. Patrol squadrons had been as soon as based mostly at Kaneohe Bay, however now deploy to Hawaii on a rotational foundation.
Marine Corps Base Hawaii is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Honolulu on Oahu. The bottom homes about 9,300 army personnel and 5,100 relations. It is one in every of a number of key army installations on Oahu.
The bottom sits on Kaneohe Bay, which is house to coral reefs, a breeding floor for hammerhead sharks and a College of Hawaii marine biology analysis institute.
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Related Press author Jennifer Sinco Kelleher contributed to this report. Dupuy reported from New York.