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 It’s been little more than two weeks since David McMahon and Sydnie Uemoto were rescued after ditching their small plane in the ocean about 30 miles short of Kona. 
 
 In the days immediately after the crash and rescue, Rick McMahon, David’s father, said the ordeal they survived was something right out of a Hollywood movie. 
 
 Now on Monday, for the first time since their harrowing experience that included nearly 20 hours at sea, KHON2 spoke with the two leading characters of the real-life drama, who said they never lost hope and counted on one another to get through the difficult hours. 
 
 Life has returned somewhat to normal for McMahon and Uemoto. 
 
 On July 15, they were forced to ditch their rented twin-engine in the ocean after both engines died. 
 
 Seconds before impact, McMahon told Uemoto to take over the controls, while he grabbed life vests and opened the door, which was on his side. 
 
 “I was like what? Okay, I was like, I don’t really know what I’m doing because we don’t actually do ditchings,” Uemoto said. 
 
 Despite a hard and bruising impact, the two say they managed to get out as water immediately started rushing in. 
 
 “The cabin was under basically by the time we jumped in the water and it was just the tail sticking up, and that went down within five minutes. It was quick. It just sank,” McMahon said. 
 
 The two were adrift with nothing more than their life jackets, and McMahon’s failed to properly inflate. 
 
 Despite several flyovers, including some directly overhead, the rescuers failed to spot them in the choppy surf. 
 
 “The water was pretty rough and at that point, the sun was pretty low so the glare factor is high and every time they flew over us was just… heartbreaking,” Uemoto recalled. 
 
 “You’re a Big Island girl. When you’re looking at that island, it’s home and right there, and yet so far away,” KHON2 said. 
 
 “Yes, I have never experienced something so far, yet so close, and yet so far,” she replied. 
 
 Eventually darkness fell. The two were were cold, exhausted and fearful. 
 
 “I kind of took the lead in the first half and overnight is when she had the strength and helped me through the hours, because up to that point, I had no vest and I’ve been swimming for eight to 10 hours,” McMahon said. “I remember turning to Sydnie and saying, ‘We have to swim toward land, because we’re not going to drift in the open ocean.” 
 
 “He said, ‘Let’s just take it slow toward land. We don’t want to overexert ourselves and use up all our energy, because at that point, we don’t know how long going to be in the water,” Uemoto said. 
 
 By sunrise, the two had been in the water for nearly 15 hours. Search aircraft remained overhead, but again failed to spot them. 
 
 Now, there were new concerns. The painful stings of Portuguese man o’ war and jellyfish. 
 
 “This one, it happened in the night time, so we couldn’t see it. I was trying to grab it off, but it was like a spider web,” Uemoto said. 
 
 That’s not all. “I just kept telling her not to look down because she was worried about sharks previously,” McMahon said. 
 
 “(David) saw the first sighting and I could see it in his face he did see something but he didn’t want to frighten me so I asked him, ‘Did you see something? Did you see a shark?’ And he said yes,” Uemoto said. 
 
 Finally, after nearly 19 hours at sea, their prayers were answered. 
 
 “What is that moment like the two of you?” KHON2 asked. 
 
 “It’s very emotional. I referred to the ‘Captain Phillips’ movie, where he gets saved. It just breaks down when he’s getting help,” Uemoto said. 
 
 “I told her this is our ride and sure enough, he came up to the circle right over us and that’s when we broke down,” McMahon said. 
 
 Both pilots say they look forward to returning to Mokulele Airlines and continuing their careers as pilots. ||||| Thirty minutes after the plane crashed in the wide stretch of ocean between the Hawaiian islands, David McMahon’s life vest started to deflate. Over the next 20 hours, the ocean sent him and his injured co-pilot swimming through jellyfish, a shark and rolling waves that hid them – wave by wave – from the helicopters circling above. 
 
 They kept swimming. 
 
 McMahon, 26, and Sydnie Uemoto, 23, were both pilots at Mokulele Airlines but barely knew each other before they took off together in a two-engine plane on 13 July, en route from Oahu to the Big Island, where Uemoto hoped to celebrate her father’s birthday. Neither pilot was an amateur, and when one of the engines failed, they knew what to do. When the second failed, they could only send distress signals as the plane fell thousands of feet toward deep water, 25 miles from the shore. 
 
 “I remember hitting the water and that noise and seeing the water come up over the windshield,” Uemoto told Mileka Lincoln of Hawaii News Now in a lengthy interview. “I was kind of in a daze for a little while seeing the water come over the cockpit and I just kind of had to register what happened and David was on the wing saying, ‘Come on, we got to get out’.” 
 
 The first hours 
 
 Uemoto’s head was injured when she hit the dashboard, and she feared the blood would start to attract sharks. But the plane was sinking fast, so they grabbed life vests and were in the water. Within minutes the wreck had sunk. 
 
 “I wasn’t too afraid yet,” McMahon said, confident that rescue crews had heard their distress call. “We just survived a plane crash, that’s the worst of it. We’ll just wait for coast guard to come.” 
 
 But half an hour after McMahon pulled the CO 2 cartridge to inflate his life vest, the tab broke and left a hole. He had to swim and tread water. After a while, he kept the life vest’s inflating tube in his mouth: “every time I would exhale I would just exhale into the life vest, just to keep it filled.” 
 
 Right in front of me, probably six to 10 feet down, was just a big black shadow. Immediately I knew it was a shark David McMahon, plane crash survivor 
 
 After a few hours, they saw helicopters and planes – but the waves and glare ofthe afternoon sun hid them. “Every time they flew over I waved my vest over my head,” McMahon told Hawaii News Now, which is part of the islands’ TV network. “I was treading water and just trying to get their attention, but also at that point we were in white caps.” 
 
 Uemoto described it as “kind of heartbreaking” to see it happen again and again as they rolled in the waves. “You get hopeful, and then you see them go. And you see them not turn around and it just – as quickly as you came up, it just goes right back down.” 
 
 The mountains of the Big Island were visible, if hazy, in the distance. After eight hours of holding his own with a faulty life vest, McMahon was on the verge of collapse. Night fell, and the cold Pacific sank into their muscles. 
 
 “I remember just asking Sydnie, ‘Sydnie, I need to stop. I’m freezing. I’m exhausted. I can’t kick any more,’” he said. “She would stop every once in a while, just shortly but she was like, ‘We can’t stop. We got to keep going’. I may have been the one strong in the beginning, but overnight I wouldn’t have made it without her.” 
 
 Making it through the night 
 
 Eventually they discovered a system. “I was able to rest my neck on her ankles. I had her ankles like this around my neck and I was just on my back and I kicked and she was swimming,” McMahon said, crediting Uemoto with his survival. 
 
 Jellyfish rose to the surface through the night, stinging Uemoto’s arms as she helped keep herself and McMahon moving in the direction of the island. Uemoto said that she’d heard the swarms can ward off large predators, though box jellyfish alone kill dozens more people than sharks a year. 
 
 But in what light they had, McMahon saw schools of “cute little black fish following us – and then all of a sudden, they were gone”. 
 
 Jellyfish rose to the surface through the night, stinging Uemoto’s arms as she helped keep herself and McMahon moving 
 
 What followed the fish, he said, was “right in front of me, probably six to 10 feet down. It was just a big black shadow – like six to seven feet, and immediately I knew it was a shark.” 
 
 “I didn’t say anything right away but she could tell from my eyes,” said McMahon. 
 
 The shark circled for a tense 10 to 15 minutes, they remembered, during which the pair planned for the worst. Uemoto asked McMahon what he would do if it came close. “He’s like, ‘I’m going to look it in the eye,’” she recalled, adding that she thought: “OK, David, you look him in the eye. I’m going to keep swimming.” 
 
 Finally rescued 
 
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 But the shark left the pilots to their fate in the ocean, and they continued struggling toward the shore. They were making plans – “hit the beach by noon” for lunch and family phone calls, “make it by dinner, you know? We’re not staying the night in the ocean” – until the morning light brought another round of helicopters and search planes. 
 
 Twenty-one hours after the crash, one of the searchers finally saw them. “We waved and we waved and waved,” Uemoto said, “and we watched it and it just made its circle and we knew they saw us.” 
 
 At 11.35am, only a mile and a half from the shore and after more than 20 miles of swimming and floating in the open ocean, they were pulled from the sea. 
 
 Uemoto and McMahon broke down into tears. “We both knew we weren’t – it wasn’t our time,” McMahon said. “I think that was the biggest role. We just both knew we were going to go back and just be a family.” ||||| Relief and happiness. 
 
 That’s how loved ones feel after two missing pilots were found alive off the Kona coast Friday morning. On Saturday, they were discharged from the Kona Community Hospital after suffering only minor injuries. 
 
 David McMahon and Sydnie Uemoto were found nine miles north of Kona International Airport, about 1.5 miles from the shoreline. 
 
 “Debris had been found by a tour helicopter, and so our sister helicopter that was in the area went to look for the debris field and they found two survivors at the time,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Kevin Cleary, aviation survival technician. “They weren’t able to hoist (the survivors) so they vectored our aircraft into position, and we were able to find them and safely hoist them aboard our helicopter. 
 
 “Their condition when I got to them was pretty good,” Cleary continued. “The male gave me a high-five and they were definitely relieved, as was I to see them. Other than some minor lacerations at the time, and cuts and bruises, they seem to be okay and in good spirits for being in the ocean for almost 24 hours.” 
 
 The two were clinging to a life vest when crews found them. 
 
 “They basically just told me that as they were going, they knew they were going to go down into the water, so he had told the lady she needs to land the plane,” Cleary said. “He was going to open the door on his side, so he was going to open it. She took controls. She landed it in the water and grabbed the life vests on the way out the door, and that was big. They were able to get the life vests. They had been swimming all night. They didn’t really explain to me how they were feeling throughout the night or anything like that.” 
 
 McMahon and Uemoto were airlifted to Kona International Airport and treated by paramedics for minor injuries shortly before noon. 
 
 KHON2 spoke with McMahon’s parents, Rick and Nancy McMahon, before they left to catch a flight to Hawaii Island. 
 
 They say the last 24 hours have been numbing and tormenting. 
 
 “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such an ever-growing anxiety, not knowing not knowing if my son was going to live through the night,” Rick McMahon said. “It was just unbelievable. I’ve been ping-ponging back and forth between happy and sad, and now he’s home. He’s alive. He’s here.” 
 
 For McMahon’s mother, news of his rescue came as the ultimate gift. Today is her birthday, and she says “it’s been the best birthday ever.” 
 
 Rick McMahon says his son’s life vest wouldn’t inflate, so he had to blow it up manually and use a finger to keep air from coming out. He also said in the hours before their rescue, McMahon and Uemoto were being circled by sharks. 
 
 The two are being treated for hypothermia and dehydration. 
 
 The McMahons hope to bring their son home on Saturday. 
 
 Mokulele Airlines president Rob McKinney confirms both are pilots for the airline. 
 
 “They are very, very valued employees, as is everyone here in our small little ohana,” McKinney said. “They are very, very special to us.” 
 
 Crews searched through the night after their plane went missing roughly 25 miles northwest of Kona. 
 
 At 3:15 p.m. Thursday, watchstanders at the Coast Guard Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Honolulu received notification from Honolulu control facility personnel that the pilot of a dual-engine aircraft radioed in to report an in-flight emergency. 
 
 The plane was traveling from Oahu to Kona (not from Maui, as previously reported by the Coast Guard). 
 
 The tower then lost contact with the pilot and the plane no longer appeared on the radar. 
 
 Watchstanders immediately issued an urgent marine information broadcast advising mariners in the area to keep a sharp lookout and report any sightings to JRCC. 
 
 Involved in the search were a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew, the USCGC Galveston Island, a Navy MH-60R helicopter off the USS Chung Hoon, and a Royal New Zealand Air Force P3K2 Orion airplane. The Chung Hoon, Royal New Zealand Air Force and U.S. Air Force HC-130 are participating in RIMPAC 2016. 
 
 The search area had been extended out to 45 miles offshore at one point. 
 
 Late Thursday night, KHON2 spoke with Rick McMahon, who said his son and Uemoto are both pilots trying to get flight hours. 
 
 “I’m dying inside,” Rick McMahon previously said. “I can’t imagine losing another son. I lost a son years ago. This feels brutal. I’m just helpless in this situation. He’s a strong swimmer. If he was able to glide this plane and land it, I believe he will survive.” 
 
 We’ve reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration, but have yet to hear back. 
 
 Coast Guard rescues pilots in Kona View as list View as gallery Open Gallery Sydnie Uemoto's mother checks on her daughter following a rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) Coast Guard crews safely deliver David McMahon and Sydnie Uemoto to emergency medical personnel in Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016, following their rescue nine miles off Kona. They were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. They reportedly sustained only minor injures in the crash. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) Coast Guard crews safely deliver David McMahon and Sydnie Uemoto to emergency medical personnel in Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016, following their rescue nine miles off Kona. They were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. They reportedly sustained only minor injures in the crash. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) The mother of Sydnie Uemoto hugs Coast Guard crews following her daughter's rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) A Coast Guard rescue swimmer involved in the rescue stands with the mother of Sydnie Uemoto following her daughter's rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) Coast Guard and Hawaii Fire Department personnel stand with the mother of Sydnie Uemoto following her daughter's rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo/Released) 
 
 Coast Guard rescues pilots in Kona x Thumbnails Gallery Sydnie Uemoto's mother checks on her daughter following a rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) Coast Guard crews safely deliver David McMahon and Sydnie Uemoto to emergency medical personnel in Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016, following their rescue nine miles off Kona. They were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. They reportedly sustained only minor injures in the crash. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) Coast Guard crews safely deliver David McMahon and Sydnie Uemoto to emergency medical personnel in Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016, following their rescue nine miles off Kona. They were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. They reportedly sustained only minor injures in the crash. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) The mother of Sydnie Uemoto hugs Coast Guard crews following her daughter's rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) A Coast Guard rescue swimmer involved in the rescue stands with the mother of Sydnie Uemoto following her daughter's rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) Coast Guard and Hawaii Fire Department personnel stand with the mother of Sydnie Uemoto following her daughter's rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo/Released) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) 
 
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 Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Sydnie Uemoto's mother checks on her daughter following a rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) Coast Guard crews safely deliver David McMahon and Sydnie Uemoto to emergency medical personnel in Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016, following their rescue nine miles off Kona. They were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. They reportedly sustained only minor injures in the crash. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) Coast Guard crews safely deliver David McMahon and Sydnie Uemoto to emergency medical personnel in Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016, following their rescue nine miles off Kona. They were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. They reportedly sustained only minor injures in the crash. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) The mother of Sydnie Uemoto hugs Coast Guard crews following her daughter's rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) A Coast Guard rescue swimmer involved in the rescue stands with the mother of Sydnie Uemoto following her daughter's rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Cooper/Released) Coast Guard and Hawaii Fire Department personnel stand with the mother of Sydnie Uemoto following her daughter's rescue nine miles off Kona, Hawaii, July 15, 2016. Uemoto and David McMahon were both rescued by a Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew following an expansive joint search by Navy, Royal New Zealand air force, U.S. Air Force and Coast Guard crews. (U.S. Coast Guard photo/Released) ||||| For the first time, the young co-pilots whose plane crash landed in the water 25 miles off of Hawai'i Island are sharing their story in their own words. 
 
 23-year-old Sydnie Uemoto and 26-year-old David McMahon say they could have never survived without one another's help and they only made it through a dark, cold night in the open ocean because they knew it wasn't their time to go. 
 
 "All the support and prayers and thoughts and positive vibes that we got from everybody it was just -- it was mindblowing. It was amazing,” said Sydnie Uemoto. 
 
 "We felt all that energy from the prayers and thoughts because we'd randomly get these waves of energy. It just had to be from everybody thinking about us and sending good vibes and prayers,” added David McMahon. 
 
 The pair’s determination to make it back to their families and friends is what fueled them through their 21-hour ordeal, which many are now calling a “miracle at sea”. 
 
 Keeping one another awake and moving was their only focus when they realized search crews couldn't see them and they would have to start swimming to shore if they wanted to survive. 
 
 “For me, I'm amazed at how much we overcame and did out there,” said Uemoto. 
 
 “I definitely feel that we're extremely blessed to go through that -- and it is if you look back on it, like a miracle -- and it's due to everybody giving their prayers and thanks. We're just extremely blessed to be here today,” said McMahon. 
 
 “Yes. I definitely see it as a blessing,” Uemoto added. 
 
 McMahon and Uemoto work together at Mokulele Airlines, but had only seen each other in passing. Uemoto was flying home to Hawai’i Island for her father’s birthday and planned to earn some multi-engine hours with another pilot along the way -- but when he couldn't make it, David joined her instead. 
 
 “I had no idea who David was,” Uemoto said. 
 
 “The first time we actually spoke was in the car on the way to the airport,” said McMahon. 
 
 McMahon and Uemoto say it was a clear beautiful day when the departed Kalealoa for Kona. 
 
 Three thousand feet above the deep blue sea and 25 miles from the Kona coast, their first engine failed – and then, a second. 
 
 “We knew how to react to when the first engine went and we did appropriately, but in training you don't kill the second engine,” said McMahon as Uemoto chuckled next to him. 
 
 “When he asked me to land it I was like -- I was thinking in my head, ‘Oh my gosh, I don't know how to ditch a plane’. But he said, ‘Just do your best and I kind of just imagined landing on the runway,” explained Uemoto. “I remember hitting the water and that noise and seeing the water come up over the windshield. I was kind of in a daze for a little while seeing the water come over the cockpit and I just kind of had to register what happened and David was on the wing saying, ‘Come on, we got to get out’,” said Uemoto. 
 
 “Everything was like slow motion, but fast at the same time. Everything was quiet and it was almost like a shade of white and immediately after hitting -- we both went forward. I think I remember Sydnie hitting the dash and then water was just rushing in,” said McMahon. 
 
 “When I stood up, I realized I was bleeding and I told him, ‘I can't go in the water’. And he said, ‘Why?’ And I was like, ‘I'm bleeding and there's sharks’. And he said, ‘You can't think about that right now’,” said Uemoto. 
 
 “She grabbed the vests and the plane was going down pretty fast and I was standing on the wing and she was right outside the door and we just put the life vests on and jumped in the water. Within a couple minutes the plane was under the water,” recalled McMahon. 
 
 Uemoto and McMahon made several distress calls before crashing. ? 
 
 “I knew they were coming, so I wasn't too afraid yet. I was just like, ‘Okay, we're just going to float here’. We just kept talking to keep our nerves down, you know? I was like, ‘They're going to come find us, you know? We just survived a plane crash, that's the worst of it. We’ll just wait for Coast Guard to come’. And then it took longer than expected,” explained McMahon. 
 
 The pair stayed by the wreckage -- sticking close to the site where they went down. Within two hours, they spotted the first of several planes and helicopters. 
 
 “They were flying and they were circling and they flew over us -- and I'm not lying -- over ten times directly above us. And every time they flew over I waived my vest over my head and I was treading water and just trying to get their attention, but also at that point we were in white caps. The sun was -- it was around 5 PM -- the sun was low and the glare on the water,” said McMahon. 
 
 “It's definitely a little heartbreaking. I would see David trying so hard to get their attention and I would just wave my hands and you would see them fly right over you and then you kind of follow them thinking, ‘Oh if they did see us, they'll turn. that's the indication that they did see us’. But then you see them still go straight towards Maui and it's just like -- they didn't see us. And it was definitely disappointing. Kind of heartbreaking. And to just do it over and over. You see it coming, you get excited, you get hopeful and then you see them go and you see them not turn around and it just -- as quickly as you came up. It just goes right back down,” explained Uemoto. 
 
 “It was pretty hard for them to see anything. All we had was our heads above the water. Every time they flew over us, it was like, ‘Come on! Why don't you see us?’ And at a certain point I turned to Sydnie and said, ‘We can't just float here anymore, we got to swim’,” said McMahon. 
 
 Surviving the plane crash was just the beginning. For McMahon and Uemoto, the real challenge still lied ahead. 
 
 The pair could see the outline of the mountains of Hawai'i Island, but no distinct land features. 
 
 We were super far out in the channel and we went down 25 miles northwest of Kona so we were deep, deep water,” described McMahon. 
 
 The pilots were no longer strangers, but survivors together in the open ocean. 
 
 “He did a really good job keeping me calm in the water. I was definitely scared and he was talking to me -- just like small talk like how we did in the plane. He was asking me questions about my family and then I would try to ask him back. It was definitely scary for me, but he did a wonderful job keeping me calm and keeping my head above water also,” said Uemoto. 
 
 McMahon was a little more comfortable in the water. He had been on the swim team and was also a surfer – but he was at a disadvantage, just 30 minutes after crashed his life vest was no longer staying inflated. He says the tab to pull the CO2 cartridge fell off and left a hole. For the first eight hours they were at sea, McMahon was swimming without a floatation device. 
 
 They kept moving. They weren’t talking a lot – so as not to exhaust themselves or get too much salt water in their mouth – but they routinely checked in. 
 
 “After a while all the air in your life vests starts to go out and you have to re-blow it, so I just kept the tube in my mouth and every time I would exhale I would just exhale into the life vest -- just to keep it filled,” described Uemoto. 
 
 After eight hours of backstrokes, breast strokes, free-style and floating, McMahon was starting to fatigue. 
 
 “I knew if we didn’t figure something out, I was going to drown,” McMahon said. 
 
 Uemoto managed to help him inflate one side of the vest that was still working. 
 
 “It was the relief I needed. I was able to rest my neck on her ankles. I had her ankles like this around my neck and I was just on my back and I kicked and she was swimming,” described McMahon. 
 
 But as the sun set and night fell, McMahon started to freeze. 
 
 “I remember just asking Sydnie, ‘Sydnie, I need to stop. I'm freezing. I'm exhausted. I can't kick anymore’. And so she would stop every once in a while, just shortly but she was like, ‘We can't stop. We got to keep going’. I may have been the one strong in the beginning, but overnight I wouldn't have made it without her. There was a point where I was getting abdominal cramps and I couldn't kick anymore and I didn't have my hands and I was telling her that and she was just like, ‘Just hang on to my ankles’ and so that's what I did. And I tried to kick as much as I could. Probably wasn't doing much, but she tugged me for a good hour, hour and a half and I just laid there. Rested. Couldn't sleep. But just gathered my energy and it was enough of a break to where after that two hours, I had enough energy again to where I could help her kick and then we just kept going,” recalled McMahon. 
 
 “I was just thinking, ‘Okay, if we do stop all this progress we've made is just going to push us back’. We were fighting the current the whole time and I just thought, ‘Okay, that's two steps forward and four steps back kind of deal’ and I just didn't want that. I was like, ‘No, we're going to keep going’,” described Uemoto. 
 
 But Uemoto’s strength was tested as well. Overnight, she was attacked by jelly fish – stings that still scar her arms weeks later. 
 
 “What I've heard from some people after all of this is that jelly fish protect you from other predators. And they were like, ‘Yeah, the jelly fish probably kept the sharks and other things away’. So I was like, ‘Okay, I'll take a jelly fish sting over a shark bite’,” said Uemoto laughing. 
 
 Turns out a shark wasn’t too far off. As the pair slowly and steadily made their way to shore, they realized they weren’t alone. 
 
 “There was these little black fish that followed us in for awhile and so I was just watching it. Cute little black fish following us. And then all of a sudden, they were gone and I didn't even look for it -- but it just caught my eye. Right in front of me, probably 6 to 10 feet down. It was just a big black shadow -- like six to seven feet and immediately I knew it was a shark,” said McMahon as Uemoto chuckled next to him 
 
 “I didn't say anything right away but she could tell from my eyes,” said McMahon. 
 
 “My heart starting beating again and I was freaking out. I was like, ‘Should I swim faster? What should we do?’ And we're so far from land,” said Uemoto. 
 
 “Yeah, we're a good ways out. I was telling her, ‘Just stay calm, you know? Don't splash. Try to keep your heart rate down. Just keep swimming like it's not there’, and so that's what we did,” explained McMahon. 
 
 “It never got real close to us, but it was circling us for a good 10 to 15 minutes. We're on his radar. He's looking for us. He's either going to wait for us to get real weak or he's just – I don't know what he's doing. As he would go behind us I would turn and then I would have my feet ready if he came close,” said McMahon. 
 
 “I asked him -- I said, ‘So what are you going to do if it does?’ And he's like, ‘I'm going to look it in the eye’, and that's all he said. And I was thinking in my head, ‘Okay, I don't know what that does, but whatever. Okay David, you look him in the eye. I'm going to keep swimming’,” said Uemoto laughing hard. 
 
 The shark eventually left the pair alone, and they kept swimming. The sun set and rose as they made their way toward shore. 
 
 “We were making all these plans, you know? We were like, ‘Okay, David. We're going to hit that beach by noon. We're going to go get lunch. Have some water. Call our families’. And then when we thought it was like 11 -- we were like, ‘Okay, we'll make it by dinner, you know? We're not staying the night in the ocean. We're not doing that again’,” said Uemoto. 
 
 Several planes and helicopters passed over them that morning searching for the pair, but none seemed to see them – even after the pilots took their life vests off and started floating on them like boogie boards instead in hopes that their bodies above water would look like bigger targets. 
 
 Uemoto and McMahon say they were convinced they’d have to rescue themselves and just kept swimming – refusing to give up. 
 
 21 hours after they crashed, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter finally spotted them. 
 
 “He turned to look at it and he said, ‘This is it, Syd. This is the one God sent for us,’ and I looked and it was a black dot and this is what amazes me because it was a black dot – I don't know how he knows this and I said, ‘Okay, David. Well, I'm going to just keep swimming’, It's that high and low again. And I could hear it coming closer and I would look and I could see it was orange and I could tell -- oh my God, it's coming right for us. And at that point we stopped and we waved and we waved and waved and waved and we watched it and it just made its circle and we knew they saw us,” said Uemoto. 
 
 “All the other times they flew over us I didn't say anything like that. I was just trying to get its attention, but before this one was even close I just knew -- that's our ride home. And it was. I don't know how I knew it. I can't explain it. It was just that feeling,” said McMahon. 
 
 “I cried and he hugged me and I said, ‘Thank you, David. Thank you so much’,” said Uemoto. 
 
 “I broke down at first and then I was just so happy to see them -- just knowing that we're going to get rescued,” said McMahon. 
 
 “The rescue diver came down and said, ‘You don't know how happy I am to see you guys. I saw you in the paper this morning’ -- pointing at me. And I said, ‘You don't know how happy we are to see you!’” explained McMahon and Uemoto together. 
 
 Uemoto and McMahon say they had no idea how many people were looking for them until they were rescued. 
 
 “It was just heartwarming how many people put in their time and effort to come look for David and I. I was just thinking, ‘We're just two civilian pilots. We just went to go have fun’. And all the support and prayers and thoughts – it was amazing,” said Uemoto. 
 
 “It was my will to live. I just knew that that was not my time. I was too young. We survived the plane crash. We survived the night in the ocean. We can not go down before we get rescued here -- even if we had to save ourselves,” said Uemoto. 
 
 “We both knew we weren't -- it wasn't our time. I think that was the biggest role. We just both knew we were going to go back and just be a family,” explained McMahon. 
 
 “People go, 'You didn't get tired during the night?' And I said, 'No' I truly believe it. It was everybody praying that just kept us going. And you know, they're that comfort -- that sense of comfort I had at night with not being as scared as I thought would be. I definitely thought it was the prayers and thoughts,” said Uemoto. 
 
 “Yeah, you’d think you'd be the most scared at night, but we actually were -- I felt my most comfort at night. It was calm and comforting at night and it just had to be from everybody thinking about us,” said McMahon. 
 
 Copyright 2016 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
– David McMahon says he wasn't terribly afraid in the first minutes after the two-engine plane he had been flying crashed in Hawaiian waters en route from Oahu to the Big Island. After all, the 26-year-old tells Hawaii News Now of the July 13 accident, he and the plane's co-pilot, 23-year-old Sydnie Uemoto, had survived the crash and had called for assistance before they bailed out of the plane. Help would soon arrive, he thought. But what the pair ended up going through in the ocean soon brought his fears to the forefront, notes the Guardian, with a 21-hour ordeal that included McMahon's life vest getting punctured (meaning he had to tread water and swim), jellyfish stings, and being circled by a shark as rescue choppers and search planes passed them by, unable to see them due to the waves and sun glare even though they flew over the two at least 10 times. And it was a long, cold night in the water for the pair, who barely knew each other before their flight. They each credit the other with their survival—Uemoto says McMahon kept her calm, while McMahon says it was Uemoto who encouraged him to keep going when, in the middle of the night, he was freezing, plagued by cramps, and ready to give up. "Just hang on to my ankles," she told him, which he did while she kept them both afloat for more than an hour. The next morning, a new round of rescuers flew overhead, and this time a US Coast Guard helicopter spotted them. "It wasn't our time," McMahon now says. "We just both knew we were going to go back and just be a family." Both tell KHON2—which notes they were treated for minor injuries, as well as hypothermia and dehydration—that they plan to keep piloting for Mokulele Airlines.