'Thank You, Jesus': Survivor recounts moments after plane crashed off Florida coast into ocean

'I can't swim': Bahamian plane crash survivors recall water rescue

After nearly five hours in the water following a small plane crash off the coast of Florida, Olympia Outten shared her experience of waiting for rescue, urging her niece to swim to stay alive. 

MELBOURNE, Fla. - When Olympia Outten heard the sounds of the U.S. Space Force plane and a rescue helicopter, she said she jumped for joy in the middle of her life raft, while waiving an emergency flag. For five hours, she said, she and 10 others were stranded, waiting for help off the coast of Florida after their small plane was forced to make an emergency landing in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday morning.

Olympia, her niece, and her two sons, were flying from Marsh Harbour Airport to Grand Bahama International Airport, near Freeport, to vote in Tuesday's general election in The Bahamas. She said during the flight, the plane encountered some storms and apparently became lost in the sky with nowhere to land – and then suffered engine trouble.

"When I see the plane, I jump for joy, all my heart, everything. I jump for joy, started praising, threw my hand in the air, and say, ‘Thank you, Jesus,'" she said during a press conference Thursday morning at Health First's Holmes Regional Medical Center, flanked by some of the doctors who helped care for the passengers.

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"I was glad to see them (U.S. military). Then, when I see them (medical staff) come in the helicopter, that's when I jump up inside the boat and say, 'yes, we get saved! Yes, we get saved!'"

'Yes, we get saved': Plane crash survivor shares story

Olympia Outten was one of 11 people aboard a plane that crashed off the coast of Florida on Tuesday, March 12.  The plane departed Marsh Harbour Airport and was headed toward Grand Bahama International Airport. She said at some point the pilots aboard the flight got lost and a decision was made to land the plane in the ocean.  "I thought we was dead," she told reporters on Thursday because all she saw was water. She said they waited for hours in a life raft.  When rescuers found them, she said she jumped for joy. "Yes, we got saved!" she said.

The backstory:

The Beechcraft BE30 twin-engine turboprop aircraft crashed Tuesday morning roughly 80 miles off the coast of Vero Beach, officials said. When it crashed, an emergency alert was issued and picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard. A U.S. Space Force 20th Rescue Wing HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter crew was already in the air during a training mission and responded. That crew found all 11 people in a life raft and hoisted them to safety.  

They were then flown to Melbourne Orlando International Airport and treated at Health First's Holmes Regional Medical Center, and another hospital.

Survivor: Unable to swim – and had to learn quickly

Olympia said she was scared and had to overcome a lot of fears after the plane hit the water. One of her sons helped her unbuckle her seat, she said. But it was the moment she needed to jump out of the plane's exit door and into the water. 

She didn't know how to swim, she said.

She told reporters how her niece told her to jump in the water and kick her legs and then kick her feet, while other people tried to get the life raft.

A huge thank you to the doctors, nurses, military

Olympia delivered a huge thank you to the doctors, nurses, and U.S. military members who helped rescue her, her family, and the others who were on the plane. 

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"They save us and they save me and my family because if it wasn't for them, we probably would have still been out there right now. Still floating somewhere."