The pilot of a plane that ditched in the ocean Thursday told Coast Guard rescue crews that he knew it was going down, so he told his passenger, also a pilot, that she needed to land the plane while he opened the door.

She landed it and grabbed life vests before both got out, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Kevin Cleary, a rescue swimmer who hoisted the survivors into an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter Friday after they had spent nearly 24 hours in the ocean.

David McMahon and Sydnie Uemoto were spotted clinging to their life vests and swimming toward shore at 11:35 a.m. about 9 miles north of the Kona airport, a mile and a half offshore.

Cleary said McMahon gave him a high-five when he reached them.

“They were definitely relieved, as was I to see them. Other than some minor lacerations at the time and cuts and bruises, they seemed to be OK and in good spirits for being in the ocean for almost 24 hours,” Cleary said.

Cleary said McMahon told crews that if it wasn’t for Uemoto, he wouldn’t have made it.

It was a team effort that led to the rescue, Cleary said. “It wasn’t just me or my aircrew,” he said at a news conference Friday at Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point.

The joint search that started Thursday spanned a cumulative 3,800 square miles by all vessels and aircraft involved, said Petty Officer 2nd Class Melissa McKenzie. That included an HC-130 Hercules plane, an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter, the guided-missile destroyer USS Chung Hoon, the Coast Guard patrol boat Galveston Island, a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion patrol plane and an HC-130 Hercules from the 353rd Special Operations Group from Kadena Air Base, Japan.

Cleary recalled how he and his team resumed their search Friday morning when they heard over the radio of a tour helicopter spotting a debris field. The debris was later determined to be unrelated. McMahon told the Coast Guard the plane sank after they landed in the ocean.

A morning news television broadcast early Friday struck a chord with Cleary when he heard McMahon’s father speak about the missing aircraft and his son. “I really wanted to be able to find his son for him. And just to be a small part of that mission was pretty cool.”