Honeymooners Survive Plane Crash, Save Two
July 22 -- Walt and Donyelle Wilkins had just gotten married in Charleston, S.C., and were flying off to the Bahamas, looking forward to starting their island honeymoon.
But instead of romance, the couple ended up struggling for their lives. The newlyweds were two of seven survivors of a July 13 small plane crash six miles from the Bahamas' Abaco Island. Two people died in the crash, but the Wilkinses treaded water for nearly two hours, and were able to hold two children, Andre Parker Diaz, 6, and Elisa Parker Diaz, 5, above the water as they waited for help to arrive.
"Walt and I stayed with them and sang some songs," Donyelle Wilkins said on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "They were wonderful — very brave, brave souls," she said.
The children's mother, Diane Parker Diaz, 33, of Jacksonville, Fla., and her 3-year-old niece Dante Parker died in the crash, authorities said.
The Wilkinses, who are from Greenville, S.C., were bruised but not otherwise injured. They had flown to Fort Lauderdale to take a plane to the Bahamas.
The Air Sunshine Cessna 402 took off from Fort Lauderdale at 2:35 p.m. for the airport at Treasure Cay, about 160 miles east of Miami. The pilot radioed that he was going down around 3:30 p.m. due to a problem with the right engine.
Walt Wilkins, 29, watched the plane disintegrate as it hurtled toward the water.
"After the engine blew, we began descending and we were hoping that we could make it to the airport," Wilkins said. "But we kept descending and the pilot was really flying the plane very hard. We crashed about six miles from shore into the ocean," he said.
After the crash, he pushed his new bride, 27-year-old Donyelle, out the door first and then threw her a life preserver. He then helped several other passengers out of the plane before leaving without a flotation device for himself.
Another Air Sunshine plane flying above was able to drop down more lifejackets, which he was able to grab.
U.S. Coast Guard rescuers hovered over the crash scene just a few feet above two groups of survivors, huddled together. A Coast Guard jet that flew over the site dropped rafts to the survivors below. One group was able to get to the rafts on their own, but another needed help.
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