Two people were rescued from the Long Island Sound on Sunday after their plane went down in the water a few miles away from Branford, Connecticut.
According to NBC News, the pilot of the aircraft managed to call 911 and provide his exact coordinates before the aircraft sank beneath the surface. Both survivors were treated for minor injuries and hypothermia symptoms.
"We arrived shortly after the Coast Guard," Branford Fire Chief Thomas Mahoney told reporters. "The Coast Guard did a great job in responding to the area, retrieving the people out of the water before things got worse. And the pilot obviously did a really good job of landing the plane in choppy seas. Those outcomes don't always come out as well as this did."
At the time, the water temperature was 60 degrees and the seas were 3 to 6 feet.
Reportedly, the single-engine Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee Six departed from Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford, Connecticut around 10:14 a.m. and flew for 12 minutes before crashing. Air traffic controllers in New York tried to help the pilot land the aircraft 8 miles away before they lost contact with the plane.
The plane was fully submerged when rescuers arrived. The two passengers were floating in the water wearing lifejackets.
The pilot of a small plane that was about to crash managed to land it safely in the cool, choppy waters of Long Island Sound off Connecticut and called 911 to provide his precise coordinates before the aircraft sank, authorities say. https://t.co/x9JmEsAevU
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 3, 2025
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is waiting for the recovery of the plane before they determine if there needs to be an investigation into the crash.