Small plane running out of fuel crashes off Florida Keys, and 2 aboard rescued by Navy

A small plane coming from Sarasota crashed into the waters of the Lower Keys on Monday morning, sending two people aboard to the hospital, according to the local Navy base.

The light aircraft was running out of fuel before it crashed nearly 30 miles north of Naval Air Station Key West’s Boca Chica Field near mile marker 8 at about 10:44 a.m., said Trice Denny, the spokeswoman for NAS.

Naval Air Station Key West’s Search and Rescue arrived at the scene at 11:11 a.m.

The plane’s occupants, a man and a woman, were in stable condition when hoisted into the Navy’s helicopter and taken to Lower Keys Medical Center on Stock Island.

The MH-60S Knighthawk copter arrived at the hospital at 11:49 a.m.

\This developing story will be updated as more information becomes available.

This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 1:59 PM.

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.