US Coast Guard releases video of rescue following cargo plane crash

Rescue workers in a Coast Guard helicopter have located two pilots and pulled them from the wreckage of a Boeing 737-200 which made an emergency landing in the water off the coast of Hawaii on Friday morning.

“One was on the tail and the other clinging to packages,” the US Coast Guard’s Karin Evelyn wrote in an email to The Associated Press. As an agency helicopter got close, “the airplane began to sink putting the individual on the tail in the water. The crews hoisted them safely on the aircraft. The rescue swimmer then assisted the other individual.”

The pilots reported engine trouble and were trying to return to Honolulu, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

“We’ve lost No. 1 engine, and we’re coming straight to the airport,” one of the pilots said in air traffic control communications. “We’re going to need the fire department. There’s a chance we’re going to lose the other engine, too, it’s running very hot. We’re very low on speed.”

Before the plane broke apart as it crashed in the water, one of the pilots told the tower: “It doesn’t look good out here.”

The plane involved in Friday’s emergency landing is 46 years old, says USA Today.