A small aircraft went down in waters between Perth's North Fremantle and Leighton Beach. The two passengers on board are safe and sound.
Michelle Yeats, the plane's pilot, claimed the engine "just cut out" as she flew back to Perth from the north of Western Australia, where she had seen the solar eclipse.
Yeats, a 45-year-old professional pilot, and her 15-year-old son Jake were flying the Piper Aircraft from Carnarvon to Jandakot Airport just after 5:00 PM AWST when they encountered technical difficulties.
How did they survive?
In an interview with ABC News, who happened to be on the beach then, she said that the engine had suddenly begun acting extremely oddly, prompting her to issue a mayday.
They could not go to Jandakot, she said, since it was far away. They might also crash into people's homes if they tried to land there.
"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," Yeats added.
She said that even if she had been trained for this many times, she felt shaky as the adrenaline pumped through her veins. "I never thought I was actually going to have to do it in real life."
Yeats claimed to try her best to angle the plane's landing so that it would not strike the water nose first and maybe flip over. Luckily, nobody hit their heads on the dashboard.
Once they landed, they realized they needed to go for a swim. Yeats said several beachgoers swam out to assist them in making it back to safety.
'Exceptional Job,' Says Police
Yeats and her kid were very fortunate to escape injury, according to Acting Inspector Mark Cannon of the police department.
"It's obviously got to be a scary incident for them, but the pilot did an exceptional job bringing it down ... we're close to a lot of public buildings and stuff, so they did very well to put it down where they did."
The police revealed there was no gasoline leak on the aircraft.
Mayday Call Response
Upon receiving the aircraft's mayday call, the controller can be heard requesting the pilot to report when they have reached the water. According to ABC News, another plane offered to look for the crashed aircraft.
After a few minutes, the pilot reportedly radios air traffic control to report seeing the plane in the sea, perhaps between 25 and 30 meters from the coast.
"There are people on the beach. I can't determine whether there's anybody that's exited the aircraft just yet," the other pilot said.
