A mother and son survived a small plane engine failure just north of Fremantle in Western Australia on Thursday afternoon, pulling off an emergency landing in the ocean.
Commercial pilot Michelle Yeates, was flying with her son, aged 15, in a small plane returning to Perth after seeing the solar eclipse in the north of Western Australia.
She told the ABC the engine “just cut out” and she had to send out a mayday call before landing the plane in the ocean at Leighton Beach. The mother and son were both able to escape from the plane and swim safely to shore. Both were uninjured.
“I was only at 1,500 feet, I didn’t have much time to react so I just sent out a mayday to the tower and then just turned around and landed on the water — I tried to get as close to the beach as I could without hitting anybody,” Yeates told the ABC.
“I’m pretty shaky, I’m pumped with adrenaline, but you train to do that sort of thing so I’ve trained for that many, many times.
“I never thought I was actually going to have to do it in real life.”
As the plane was crashing down, Yeates said she turned to her son and said: “Mate, we’ve just had engine failure, we’re going to have to land on the beach.”
“He was like, ‘For real? Are you for real?'”
“I said, ‘Hopefully this is the most exciting thing that’s going to happen in your life and we’re going to be OK.'”
Yeates said she was focused on landing the plane at the right angle so it didn’t flip over. Luckily, they were able to open the door and swim to shore.
Several onlookers said they were shaken up witnessing the crash, noting how unexpected and dangerous it was. A few onlookers also swam out to make sure the mother and son could get to shore safely.