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Plane Crash Survivor Shares Harrowing 5-Hour Ordeal at Sea at Holmes Regional Medical Center Press Conference

By  //  May 15, 2026

One of 11 survivors describes the crash and credits Brevard County rescuers, Health First trauma team who saved her and her family

ABOVE VIDEO: Hear from one of the survivors of Tuesday’s plane crash 60 miles off Melbourne’s coast.

Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center staff pose for a photo Thursday with Olympia Outten, who was treated at the Melbourne hospital after surviving a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday.

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Olympia Outten, 48, spent five hours in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday, wondering if anyone was coming to save her and her loved ones after the small plane carrying them crashed off the coast of Brevard County.

“All I was saying was, ‘Lord… is this the way I’m going to die?’ ” an emotional Outen recalled. “Everybody was counting on God.”

Outten spoke Thursday at Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center alongside Health First Chief Medical Officer Dr. Victor Vargas and trauma surgeon Dr. Scott Zenoni.

Dr. Victor Vargas, CMO, left, and Dr. Scott Zenoni, trauma surgeon, listen to plane crash survivor Olympia Outten, who was pulled from the Atlantic Ocean alongside 10 others after the small plane they were traveling in crashed Tuesday.

Outten, her niece, two sons, and others were rescued at sea and treated at the Melbourne hospital.

More than anything, Outten expressed immense relief and gratitude for all who jumped in to save her and the other passengers.

“We were in the water for five hours. It felt longer because we were out there in the rain,” Outen recalled of the five hours of being pelted during a storm. “You couldn’t see anything around us.”

After hours in the water, help finally arrived — the 920th Rescue Wing at Patrick Space Force Base, which airlifted survivors to safety.

Ten of them were treated at Holmes Regional; another was treated at another local hospital.

“When I saw the plane, I jumped with joy,” Outten said. “They circled around us. They saved us….We would have been floating somewhere

Outten had been headed home to Freeport in the Bahamas from Abaco – ironically, on a flight she wasn’t even supposed to be on in the first place.

Hospital teams quickly began assessing patients as they arrived.

“Everybody was at least awake, alert, and talking,” Zenoni said of the initial assessment.

The team quickly learned there were a lot of minor injuries, from broken bones to lacerations.

“Our role is to understand what rescue teams are seeing in real time and translate that into care here in the hospital, so we’re ready to take every patient who comes through our doors,” Vargas said.

The incident aligned with what Health First regularly prepares for, with mass-casualty drills.

“We train for this,” Zenoni said. “We have trauma surgeons, nurses, and a coordinated team ready when it happens.”

So when it did, they were ready.

Olympia Outten becomes emotional while sharing her story about surviving a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday.

Both physicians expressed appreciation to the 920th Rescue Wing and Melbourne emergency responders, crediting the coordinated effort for the swift rescue and care of all passengers.

Outten, who plans to return home to Freeport via boat as soon as she can, is beyond grateful.

“They saved us,” Outen said. “We would have been floating somewhere.”