Incident Details
A commercial sightseeing flight planned in the vicinity of Key West, Florida, was disrupted when a male passenger left his seat during cruise. The passengers were an elderly Hispanic couple with limited English skills. The male passenger entered the cockpit, produced a knife, turned off the radios and transponder, and demanded to be flown to Cuba.
To counteract the hijacking, the pilot pitched the aircraft nose-down to create negative G-forces, intending to incapacitate the hijacker, and turned back toward Key West. During the ensuing struggle, the hijacker fell against and bent the retarded throttle. Attempts by the pilot to straighten the throttle shaft caused it to snap off, leaving the engine at idle power.
Emergency Ditching
With no throttle control, the pilot conducted a ditching on the water. Upon impact, forward motion stopped violently, and the lap-belted passengers appeared to lose consciousness. The aircraft began to sink rapidly.
Rescue and Aftermath
The pilot egressed from the right cockpit door, inflated his life vest, and swam to the passenger door to extricate the passengers. However, the aircraft sank before he could open the door, and the passengers went down with the aircraft. The pilot was rescued by a U.S. Navy helicopter. Neither the aircraft nor the passengers have been recovered to date.