The 11 people who survived a plane crash off Florida spent hours on a life raft while waiting to be found, with search crews describing the conditions they faced as the weather shifted. During a news conference Wednesday, Air Force Reserve officials and a combat rescue specialist recounted how the survivors remained exposed at sea after a Tuesday ditching and how military aircraft and helicopter crews ultimately reached them.

Authorities said the Beechcraft 300 King Air turboprop was traveling from Marsh Harbour on the Bahamian island of Great Abaco to Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport when it suffered engine failure. The pilot then ditched the plane in the water about 50 miles (80 km) off Vero Beach, Florida, and managed to get 10 passengers onto a yellow life raft, with three people reported to have minor injuries.

One key factor in the eventual rescue was the plane’s emergency beacon, which alerted the U.S. Coast Guard to the location, officials said. At that time, Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing already had a crew airborne conducting a training mission in an HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter, but the crew was redirected to help with the search.

Capt. Rory Whipple, an Air Force combat rescue specialist who jumped into the water and swam to the survivors, described what he saw when he reached the raft. “You could tell just by looking at them that they were in distress — physically, mentally and emotionally,” Whipple said, adding that the uncertainty of whether help was coming created what he described as emotional injuries. “You have to imagine the emotional injuries that they sustained out there, not knowing if someone was going to rescue them.”

Air Force Reserve Maj. Elizabeth Piowaty said the pilot’s choices helped preserve the group’s chances after the ditching. She credited the pilot’s efforts, saying the pilot would have been concerned about ocean swells and slowing the plane as much as safely possible before impact. Piowaty also described the long delay that stretched before rescue crews arrived: for about five hours, the 11 survivors floated on the life raft without a way to call for help and without knowing whether anyone was coming.

Piowaty said her HC-130J Combat King II aircraft located the survivors and then passed overhead to drop a survival kit that included two additional rafts, food and water. Once the survivors spread out, the HH-60W helicopter crew, including Whipple, hoisted them to safety amid 3- to 5-foot (1- to 1.5-foot) swells, officials said. Piowaty said the final rescue happened just minutes before the helicopter would have been forced to refuel.

After the survivors were recovered, officials said there was no sign of the downed aircraft. All 11 survivors were flown to awaiting emergency medical services at Melbourne Orlando International Airport, and authorities said all were reported to be in stable condition.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it would investigate the crash.