John “Jack” Bettencourt, 55, of Miami, and friend Mark Zdunczyk, 58. of Albany, Ga., left Cap Hatian, Haiti, on Saturday in a Piper Aztec heading for Exuma, Bahamas, but ran out of gas over the Acklin Islands. The Acklins are located almost 400 miles southeast of Miami and 100 miles northeast of Cuba.
Commercial airline pilots from United Airlines Flight 1675, American Airlines Flight 1345 and Spirit Airlines Flight 259 heard the mayday sent out by Bettencourt prior to his crash landing in the water and relayed it to the Coast Guard around 11:40 a.m.
The Coast Guard launched a massive search for the two men using Air helicopters, a C-130 Hercules aircraft and a cutter. In all 10,000 square miles of sea were searched.
The break came when the crew of the Hercules spotted the sunken wreckage of the downed aircraft at 1:48 p.m. Sunday. Shortly after that, they saw Bettencourt walking on a small cay about a half a mile away from the crash site.
The men told the Coast Guard they were able to swim to the cay where rescuers found Zdunczyk laying under a make-do lean-to shelter while Bettencourt was out seeking help.
Both men were transferred to Provo International Airport where they were met by local EMS and taken to Government Hospital in the Bahamas. Both were reported in good condition. οΎ
Source: sun-sentinel.com
