"Pilot Did An Incredible Job"

Both pilots are being hailed as heroes after their Convair 340, painted with huge, red letters that spell, "Re-elect George W. Bush" suffered engine failure and ditched in a lake near Aventura, FL Saturday.

The aircraft, owned by Miami Air Lease, a family-owned cargo carrier, had just taken off from Opa-locka Airport on its way to Nassau, Bahamas, when pilot Alejandro Bristol, and co-pilot Dennis Villavicencio felt a strange vibration in their controls. They were four miles offshore, according to the Miami Herald, when they decided to turn back to the airport.

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports one of the aircraft's engines failed, causing the emergency.

They almost made it.

But when they realized that there was no way to make the field -- and seeing the condos, homes and commercial buildings in their path, Bristol and Villavicencio decided to do what was safest for the unsuspecting people on the ground. They ditched in the lake.

"I was a bit surprised to see a plane that big in the water and I was surprised to see it was still afloat," Sunny Isle Beach Marine Officer Joe Alvarez, told the Herald. He was already on the water when the aircraft went down and arrived at the scene within minutes. "The pilot did an incredible job."

Firefighters told the Miami paper they agreed with Alvarez's assessment. Not only did the flight crew avoid the buildings, but also maneuvered over busy US Route 1 and the power lines that ran along the roadway.

"They came down in an area that was basically devoid of structures, which is pretty impressive," said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesman Eric Baum. "Just a little bit of difference," he told the Sun-Sentinel,"and this would not have ended on a good note."

FMI: www.ntsb.gov