HONOLULU– A Navy plane flying in rainy weather skidded off the runway Monday at a military base in Hawaii and crashed into Kaneohe Bay, but all nine people on board were uninjured, authorities said.
The Coast Guard responded, but rescue operations were quickly called off, said Petty Officer Ryan Fisher, a Coast Guard spokesman. “It appears that all parties involved were rescued,” he said.
Marine Corps spokesman Gunnery Sgt. Orlando Perez had no information about what caused the P-8A plane to skid off the runway at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
A photograph taken by witness Diane Dircks showed the plane in the water near the shore, a sight reminiscent of the 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson,” when a passenger plane piloted by Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger made an emergency landing. in the New York River. All 155 people on board survived.
The P-8A and the Airbus A320 that Sullenberger flew are approximately the same size.
Dircks and her family had just returned to the dock after rainy weather cut short their pontoon trip when her daughter noticed the plane in the water.
“We ran to the end of the pier and I took some pictures,” he said.
Dircks, who is visiting from Illinois, said her daughter carries a pair of bird-watching binoculars, so she was able to see the plane and rescue boats arriving.
“It was incredible,” he said.
The Honolulu Fire Department received a 911 call reporting a downed plane shortly after 2 p.m., spokesman Malcolm K. Medrano said in an email. At that time it was cloudy and rainy. Visibility was about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers), said Thomas Vaughan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu.
The P-8A is often used for hunting submarines and for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. It is manufactured by Boeing and shares many parts with the 737 commercial airliner.
The plane belongs to the Skinny Dragons of Patrol Squadron 4 stationed on Whidbey Island in Washington state. Patrol squadrons were once based in Kaneohe Bay, but now deploy to Hawaii on a rotational basis.
Marine Corps Base Hawaii is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Honolulu on Oahu. The base houses about 9,300 military personnel and 5,100 family members. It is one of several key military installations on Oahu.
The base is located in Kaneohe Bay, which is home to coral reefs, a breeding ground for hammerhead sharks, and a marine biology research institute at the University of Hawaii.
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Associated Press writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher contributed to this report. Dupuy reported from New York.
