“I thought we was going to die.” Those were the haunting words of Olympia Outten, one of 11 people rescued after a small plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s east coast.
The crash left terrified passengers stranded in rough waters for nearly five hours before help finally arrived.
Outten emotionally recounted the terrifying ordeal this week after the Beechcraft BE30 aircraft went down near Melbourne, Florida, while traveling from the Bahamas during severe weather conditions.
Surrounded by dark water and unable to see land, Outten said panic immediately set in after the plane hit the ocean.
“Because all I see was dark water around us,” she recalled in an interview with Fox Local. “We thought we wouldn’t live.”
According to officials, all 11 passengers aboard the aircraft survived the May 12 crash after rescue crews from the U.S. Coast Guard and the 920th Rescue Wing from Patrick Space Force Base responded to the emergency.
But for those inside the aircraft, survival felt uncertain moment by moment.
Outten said her niece helped save her life after the crash because she did not know how to swim.
“My niece, she was on the wing, and she told me, ‘Auntie, swim,’” Outten explained. “I said, ‘I can’t swim.’”
The survivor said her niece instructed her to throw herself into the water and “flop” her feet until she could stay afloat long enough to reach the wing of the damaged aircraft.
“She put me on the wing,” Outten said.
As passengers fought to stay calm in the water, Outten’s son searched the sinking plane for an emergency raft.
“My son saw it, and he pulled the little red thing,” she recalled. “He said, ‘Mommy, y’all jump in the boat.’”
The group eventually crowded into the small raft while drifting through stormy conditions miles away from shore.
“There was 11 of us,” Outten said. “We was out there for five hours. We was in a little storm.”
The frightening wait for rescue became even more emotionally draining as darkness and isolation settled over the group.
“We thought no one would have saw us,” she said.
Outten described repeatedly praying aloud while floating in the Atlantic Ocean, begging for someone to find them before it was too late.
“All I was saying, I was praying and asking God to send someone for us,” she said. “Please send someone for us.”
The rescue finally came when military responders spotted the stranded passengers and pulled them to safety.
“I thank God for the U.S. Marines,” Outten said emotionally. “They saw us, and they saved us.”
Officials confirmed all passengers were accounted for and treated following the rescue. Authorities have not yet released details about what caused the aircraft to crash, though reports indicate the plane encountered rough weather during the flight from the Bahamas.
The incident has sparked renewed conversations about emergency preparedness on small aircraft flights over water, particularly during unpredictable weather conditions.
For Outten, however, the memory that remains strongest is the overwhelming fear of being stranded in open water with no sign of rescue.
“To be out there for five hours and ain’t seeing no land,” she said, “just water everywhere… we thought we wouldn’t live.”
