U.S. Coast Guard rescues marines after plane catches fire

Posted: Updated:

By Jaime Dailey - bio | email

BEAUFORT, SC (WTOC) - Two marine pilots are back at home with their families after their fighter jet crashed into the ocean.

The dual-seat F-A 18 Hornet caught fire during a routine training mission Wednesday night. The pilots ejected about 35 miles off the coast of St. Helena Island.

Marine pilot Maj. Duane Liptak and his weapons systems officer, Capt. Johnathan Hutchison, got quite a welcome home as they walked off the rescue helicopter.

"The aircrew performed the emergency procedures to deal with the fire and started heading back to Beaufort and realized they were not going to be able to make it back to Beaufort," said Lt. Col Joseph Mayback, VMFA(AW) 224 Commanding Officer. "The fire was getting worse and so they prepared for a controlled ejection."

Captain Tom Bolen is a pilot with VMFA 2-51. He was in the area when it happened and came to their rescue.

"I saw the aircraft from a few miles away, saw they had engine problems coming from out of the back of the aircraft," said Capt. Bolen. "I got up to them flew along side of them, so they knew at least that somebody was watching them."

It was a good thing because he saw them eject and was able to spot them in the water so they could be rescued quickly.

"I'm just thankful they got picked up and just glad that I could offer any assistance and helped out where I could," said Capt Bolen.

Lt. Col. Mayback says with that information, the Coast Guard was able to rescue them within an hour.

"The sun was getting ready to go down so we were concerned the rescue effort was going to go out into the night so we're very glad to have found them quickly," said Lt. Col. Mayback.

Amazingly enough, both walked away from the crash without any injuries.

"We've had them checked out in the hospital and they're fine," said Lt. Col. Mayback. "They don't appear to have any injuries so I'm thrilled about that. The Egress system in the aircraft worked perfectly, the survival systems in the ocean worked perfectly and really the brave efforts of the Coast Guard responsed immediately to the search and rescue was a factor in getting them recovered quickly."

The Coast Guard crew is based in Savannah and on Wednesday happened to be one of the days they worked a shift in Charleston.

"It worked out well for them because if we'd had to come from savannah it would have been an hour or so," said Coast Guard pilot Lt. Jeff Jacobs.

The crew went back out Thursday morning and a diver located the plane's black box recorder and brought it up. They hope it can help answer some questions as to what went wrong and why.

They say this rescue went textbook perfect because they had an exact location with help from the pilot's tracking equipment.