Battered US Navy plane pictured after crash in Hawaii bay left sailors in the water
Pictures show severe damage to the front and rear of the aircraft as those on board were forced to swim to safety.
Shocking official photographs show damage to a US Navy aircraft that overshot a runway and landed in a Hawaiian bay.
The P-8A Poseidon plane was carrying nine crew members when it crashed into the water on Monday, November 20, forcing those aboard to swim to safety.
Navy pictures show the extensive damage the surveillance and submarine-hunting aircraft received to its tail end. The nose cone also seems to be missing.
US Navy Sailors are pictured deploying oil containment booms in the waters just off Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay.
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The jet is usually based at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington, and was conducting routine training for maritime patrol and reconnaissance.
The P-8A is known as a multi-role maritime patrol aircraft, equipped with sensors and weapons systems for anti-submarine warfare, as well as surveillance and search and rescue missions.
An earlier photo taken by witness Diane Dircks showed the plane in water just offshore, a sight reminiscent of the 2009 'Miracle on the Hudson' when a passenger jet piloted by Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger made an emergency landing on the New York river.
All 155 people aboard survived.
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The P-8A and the Airbus A320 that Sullenberger piloted are roughly the same size.
Dircks and her family had just returned to the dock after rainy weather cut their pontoon boat trip short when her daughter noticed the plane in the water.
“We went running over to the end of the dock, and I took some pictures,” she said.
Dircks, who is visiting from Illinois, said her daughter keeps a pair of binoculars on her for birdwatching, so she was able to see the plane and the rescue boats arriving.
“It was unbelievable,” she said.
The Honolulu Fire Department received a 911 call for a downed aircraft shortly after 2pm, spokesperson Malcolm K. Medrano told Associated Press. It was cloudy and rainy at the time and visibility was about one mile (1.6 kilometers), meteorologists said.
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