The U.S. Coast Guard says all 11 people aboard a small plane survived after it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida last Tuesday.
Rescue crews found the survivors in a life raft after five hours at sea and brought them safely to Melbourne for medical evaluation.
Maj. Elizabeth Piowaty said, “For all those people to survive is pretty miraculous.” The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Afterwards, NBC News reported that Jonathan Gardiner, one of the 11 Bahamian adults rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Air Force, had been charged with one count of cocaine import conspiracy for allegedly smuggling cocaine since 2023, according to a federal complaint. The government charges he was carrying a brown paper bag with $30,000 and labeled with the name of a Bahamian politician connected with trafficking cocaine from Colombia. Gardiner also had three phones on him when the plane went down this week, according to prosecutors.
