That would be scary to have to hold on to a little thing out in the water for 12 hours. 
N2558Y Mooney 20C lost power, ditched in open water at night,
and the 3 on board were fortunate enough to avoid injuries,
and found a lobster buoy which they hung onto for 12 hours!!!
The Seventh Coast Guard District was notified around 9:30 p.m. Friday night by an air-traffic controller in Miami that a single-engine aircraft was losing altitude quickly and might have crashed.
ABC News interview 15 minutes from their destination they heard a ‘pop’ sound and the engine quit, in total darkness the aircraft hit the water nose first. It then hit the tail, slid, and came to a stop, they had 2 life jackets, which they tied them together and hung on.
They were in 5 foot swells, and could see the aircraft and boats searching for them. After 12 hours a USCG boat came across them. The one passenger was bleeding from the head, and all 3 thought it would attract the sharks through out the night.
Scary stuff.
They were in 5 foot swells, and could see the aircraft and boats searching for them
All they needed was an IR strobe and they likely would have been found. I never venture out into the woods, trails or mountains without my Streamlight Sidewinder White, red, blue and IR LEDs with strobing capability. Waterproof.
Great for a pilot because you can use the articulating head and clip to read a knee board and not mess up your night vision with the red LED. Blue light highlights blood and wounds.
Looks like a good light!
This is a better video as the describe their ordeal . . . Click Here.
On Sunday there was also a Cessna 210 went into the sea off of Corsica, French officials rescued all 6 persons over a 5 hour period.
News; FRENCH authorities have rescued six people who survived in the Mediterranean Sea for more than five hours after their small plane crashed off the coast of Corsica, officials say.
The first two survivors were found thanks to a distress beacon and were plucked from the choppy sea by a helicopter after Monday’s crash. They were treated for hypothermia at a beach before being taken to hospital, a medical source said.
A third person was rescued later by an army helicopter.
The last three survivors were found near a lifeboat that was dropped by a reconnaissance aircraft, according to the rescue operations centre in the Corsican city of Ajaccio.
The plane was flying from Propriano in southern Corsica to the French Riviera city of Cannes when it crashed in the sea in the Gulf of Porto.
The pilot, who is in his 50s, reported engine failure to air control and announced he would try to land in the sea one hour after take-off, officials said.
Hmmmm…the above story shows the value of a PLB. Even a SPOT would have been better than nothing. Too many incidents of folks spending many hrs. and sometimes days before rescue. ( Gulf of Mexico boaters come to mind ) Well we all make our own choices…
ABC update video