Pilot Lost Both Engines Before Safe Ocean Landing

The secret behind a pilot's "pretty miraculous" emergency landing in the Atlantic: He lost both engines, but not his composure. Ian Nixon, a 43-year-old Bahamian pilot, tells CBS News that the engines on his Beechcraft King Air 300 failed, along with his radios and navigation systems, during what was supposed to have been a short hop Tuesday from Marsh Harbour to Freeport in the Bahamas. "Flying over 25 years and I've never seen anything like that," he recalled. With no way to reach air traffic control, he says he flew as far as he could, then put the plane down about 50 nautical miles off Florida's east coast.

All 11 people on board survived and were pulled from a life raft by the US Air Force's 920th Rescue Wing after hours in rough seas, unsure whether their emergency beacon had activated. Three people, including Nixon, were treated for minor injuries. He recalled that soon before a rescue plane appeared, he told passengers, "In the next 10 minutes, a plane is going to come." Moments later, a passenger asked, "Hold on, did I hear something?" The crash remains under investigation. Florida Today notes that the plane went down amid thunderstorms off the Florida coast.