Pilot Who Ditched Airplane Off Hawaii Coast Makes TV Appearance

The pilot of the Cirrus that ran out of fuel en route to Hawaii last weekend and ditched his airplane in the Pacific Ocean using his airframe parachute has become something of a celebrity ... appearing on ABC News This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

The Coast Guard captured dramatic video of the plane as its fuel was exhausted and the pilot, Lou Morton, deployed the airplane's full airframe parachute. The reporter, of course, talks about the airplane "hurtling towards the ocean" as the Cirrus takes a nose-down attitude before the chute is fully deployed.

But Morton was apparently not as concerned. After following procedures and opening the airplane's door to facilitate a quick exit once it hit the water, he took a "selfie" with his GoPro camera, according to the report.

Morton was less than 300 miles from his Hawaii destination when he said the Cirrus suffered "some kind of malfunction in the fuel system" and he was forced to ditch after a 7 hour flight. He used a satellite phone to call the Coast Guard, and then his father, which he said was "the hardest part of the flight."

When it became apparent that Morton would not make landfall ... or be within range of rescue helicopters, the Coast Guard gave him vectors to the position of a Holland America cruise ship, which he circled until the Cirrus ran out of gas. A Coast Guard C-130 was with him at the time, which is how the dramatic video was captured.

Morton said that while he knew how the airframe parachute is supposed to work, he was nervous as the fuel ran out and he pulled the red handle, but it was more about exiting the aircraft after it impacted the water. "There's a lot of things that could have gone wrong," he said, "if I get my pant leg or my shirt sleeve gets caught on something as I'm getting out or there's a huge swell or something that cascades over the aircraft or rolls the aircraft, then there's a lot of things."

The story has a happy ending, of course. Morton was picked up by the cruise ship and finished his trip to Hawaii on the sea rather than in the air.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov