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Yesterday, we told you how three persons escaped unharmed after a Tropic Air Cessna 182 crash-landed in the sea between Turneffe Island and Lighthouse Reef. At 4:17 pm, Pilot Denfield Borland called the air traffic control tower at Ladyville to tell them his single engine had failed – and he would have to ditch the plane – an aviation term meaning land it in the sea. The plane was headed to Roatan, Honduras so it was up a few thousand feet. The pilot used that height to glide for at least five minutes and find the safest, shallowest area in the sea to set the plane down. It sounds simple enough, but it must have been a harrowing experience for his two passengers as they descended without power into the open sea.

But, everything worked out right, the pilot guided the plane safely to shallow waters, and a rescue team from the Coast Guard and the Audubon found them safe and sound within minutes.

The Deputy Commandant of the Coast Guard told the press today what his officers encountered when they arrived at the crash site:

Commander Elton Bennett – Vice Commandant, Coast Guard

"Yesterday at about 4:45 we received information from civil aviation that a small tropic air craft went down somewhere between the turneffe atolls and lighthouse reef atoll. We informed and dispatched our unit from the forward operating base just out at calabash caye - and we also deployed the joint unit that we had stationed at half-moon caye with the park rangers from the audubon society. At exactly 5:05 - just 20 minutes after receiving the call, the search unit arrived at the scene and rescued the 3 persons from on board the aircraft that went down. Upon arriving at the scene the 3 persons were on top of the aircraft - the aircraft has not yet sunk. They were rescued from that location and taken to half-moon caye where a coast guard vessel transported them from that area into turneffe."

Daniel Ortiz

"Are you able to talk to us about what the officers observed with the plane?"

Commander Elton Bennett

"At this time the plane is semi-submerged. There is an investigation team on the scene from civil aviation. During high tide you can observe a portion of the aircraft - so the aircraft is semi-submerged and the investigation will indicate what the future course of action will be. The owners of the aircraft will determine what action they will take as it related to the aircraft."

Isani Cayetano - Channel 5 News

"With the correspondence with your assets on the ground, where you given any indication of the physical condition of these survivors?"

Commander Elton Bennett

"Yes, from what we understand the survivors were in very good health, good condition. There was no medical casualty to report."

Reporter

"As it relates to other rescue missions that the coast guard has had to mount in the past, can you speak to the ease of this one perhaps? Or compare?"

Commander Elton Bennett

"When we received the information initially, we thought it would have been a very difficult operation considering the sea state yesterday. It was very rough and overcast and it was a small aircraft that went down in the deep. But luckily our friends from the audubon society were within a 5 mile range of where the aircraft went down. Hence the reason why we were able to quickly conduct that rescue operation."

A team from the Civil Aviation Department has been at the area for most of the day doing an inspection for themselves, and although they've promised to brief the media about their findings, the investigators were unable to make any comment today.

Tropic Air has declined any comment, and they've directed us to their page on their Facebook page as the only release of information to the public.

The statement says, quote, "On Tuesday evening…our four passenger, Cessna 182, V3-HHT…experienced an engine malfunction. The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing at Lighthouse Reef Atoll." The release adds that they were awaiting better conditions to be transferred back to Belize City.

We are told that they were brought in from Blackbird Caye early this morning and left the country this morning.