June 27, 2012 — A pilot spent Friday afternoon spotting tuna for a fishing boat off the coast of Gloucester.
But as he headed home, the engine of his small red plane sputtered and stopped, 12 miles from shore.
The pilot radioed the fishing vessel Christina, for which he was spotting. He said he was going down and going to ditch the plane, 5:15 p.m. Friday.
The vessel, part of National Geographic's "Wicked Tuna" series steamed toward the pilot's location, contacted the Coast Guard, and a Coast Guard lifeboat sped toward the plane as well.
Monday, Jeff Quinn, Boatswain Second Class with the U.S. Coast Guard at Station Gloucester, said that calm weather, a flight plan and a life raft brought him home without a scratch.
"He wasn't even wet," Quinn, who captained the life boat, said of the pilot whose plane went down off Gloucester's shores. "I was relieved when I saw the life raft and the plane. He was waving when we got out there."
Station Gloucester declined to release pilot's name Monday.
The plane came down in 70 degree weather, said Quinn, adding that, more than crashing, the pilot came down and landed on the water, skipping about three times before the plane's life raft inflated.
Read the full story in the Gloucester Times