RNLI releases new rescue footage of pilots forced to ditch plane eight miles out to sea

Two pilots who crashed their light aircraft into the English Channel off the coast of Jersey were rescued by Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) volunteers on Thursday, 3 November.

The pair were undergoing refresher training when their engine lost power, forcing them to ditch the plane.

Three Jersey RNLI lifeboats battled through 2-3m swells, rain and winds of up to 35mph to reach the pilots, who escaped the sinking plane and climbed inside a liferaft with a personal locator beacon.

“If the RNLI hadn’t rescued us it would have been a different story,” pilot Paul Clifford said.

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