Father and Daughter in Haiti after SR22 Ditching

Stephen Pope

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 11:22 PM ET

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Key Takeaways:

An Alabama father and daughter on a medical mission to Haiti survived an emergency ditching of their Cirrus SR22 plane after an engine failure off the coast of Florida near the Bahamas.
They deployed the aircraft's ballistic parachute system to safely land in the water, then exited onto an inflatable life raft.
The Coast Guard, alerted by their distress call, quickly dispatched a rescue helicopter to their location.
Despite the traumatic incident, Dr. Richard McGlaughlin, a gastroenterologist who frequently aids Haiti's cholera outbreak, and his daughter Elaine continued their mission to Haiti via commercial flight.

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A father and daughter from Alabama are continuing their medical mission in Haiti after safely ditching off the coast of Florida near the Bahamas on Saturday when the engine in their Cirrus SR22 suddenly quit.

Dr. Richard McGlaughlin, 59, and his daughter, Elaine McGlaughlin, 25, departed from their home near Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday for a planned stop in Miami, before continuing on to Haiti. About an hour after the pair took off from Miami, their Cirrus suffered an engine failure. The crew of a nearby Coast Guard HC-144 patrol aircraft heard McGlaughlin’s radio distress call and immediately dispatched a rescue helicopter to the scene.