HONOLULU — Amidst rainy weather, a Navy plane overshot a runway on Monday at a military base in Hawaii and landed in Kaneohe Bay. All nine people aboard were unharmed, authorities confirmed.
The Coast Guard initially responded but quickly called off rescue operations, said Petty Officer Ryan Fisher, a Coast Guard spokesperson. “It sounds like all parties involved were rescued,” he said.
Gunnery Sgt. Orlando Perez, a Marine Corps spokesperson, had no information about what caused the P-8A aircraft to go off the runway at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
Witness Diane Dircks took a photo of the plane in the water, reminiscent of the 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson” when a passenger jet made an emergency landing on the New York river, resulting in all passengers surviving. The P-8A and the Airbus A320 aircraft piloted by Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger are roughly the same size.
After inclement weather cut their boat trip short, Dircks and her family returned to the dock only to spot the plane in the water. “We went running over to the end of the dock, and I took some pictures,” she said.
The Honolulu Fire Department received a 911 call for a downed aircraft shortly after 2 p.m., spokesperson Malcolm K. Medrano said in an email. It was cloudy and rainy at the time. Visibility was about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers), said Thomas Vaughan, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Honolulu.
The P-8A is often used for submarine hunting and reconnaissance. It is manufactured by Boeing and shares many parts with the 737 commercial jet. The plane belongs to the Skinny Dragons of Patrol Squadron 4 stationed at Whidbey Island in Washington state.
Marine Corps Base Hawaii is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Honolulu on Oahu and houses about 9,300 military personnel and 5,100 family members. It’s one of several key military installations on Oahu.
The base sits on Kaneohe Bay, which is home to coral reefs, a breeding ground for hammerhead sharks and a University of Hawaii marine biology research institute.
Associated Press writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher contributed to this report. Dupuy reported from New York.
