After spending a night in the ocean, two off-duty commercial pilots whose rented plane went down off the coast of Kona were found alive late Friday morning with their life jackets on, trying to swim the last mile and a half to shore.

David McMahon, 26, of Kailua, who initially piloted the twin-engine plane, and Sydnie Uemoto, 24, of Kona, were trying to gain experience and log more flying time in a twin-engine Piper Apache from West Oahu to Kona Airport when the plane went down.

“Wonderful work from the Coast Guard. Wonderful work from RIMPAC, the Navy, the Air Force,” said an ecstatic mother, Andrina Uemoto, at the Kona Airport. “They all joined forces, came together, and they saved my girl, who was in the water for almost 10 hours. According to her, she swam all night and she and David are fine.”

She said her daughter didn’t talk much, but did say “they swam away from the target point,” adding, “I guess that’s why it took so long.”

“We are overjoyed of her safety,” Uemoto later texted the Honolulu Star-Advertiser from Kona Community Hospital. “Prayer changes things.”

The Coast Guard said the two were found with minor injuries. An emergency room physician said the pair were in good condition but would be kept overnight Friday at the hospital.

The pilot reported engine trouble shortly before 3:15 p.m. and lost radio contact with the airport control tower before ditching the plane, the Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration reported. Their last known location before disappearing from the radar was 25 miles northwest of Kona Airport.

But a tour helicopter pilot spotted the debris and the survivors 1-1/2 miles offshore, 6 miles northwest of Kona Airport. That pilot contacted a nearby Coast Guard helicopter, which remained on scene until another Coast Guard helicopter with hoisting capabilities arrived, hoisted up the pair and transported them to the Kona Airport, where they were treated for minor injuries.

In addition to its assets, the Coast Guard said private tour helicopters, the Navy, a New Zealand air force P3 plane participating in the Rim of the Pacific military exercises, and the Hawaii County Fire Department participated in the search.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

“It’s an absolute miracle,” said their boss, Ron Hansen, owner of Mokulele Airlines, where the two are fairly new commercial pilots. “These young people have a story to tell. … They survived, which is unbelievable. … My son is a two-time Olympian swimmer, but if dropped off into the ocean, I don’t think he could do that.”

Hansen said his small company with 150 pilots is like a family, and describes the two as “fine young people.” Everyone with the company was “involved in caring and thinking about these two people.” They held a prayer vigil and “obviously it worked.”

“My wife and I know Sydnie, so it hit close to home,” said Hansen. “She’s a young lady whose whole life was to be an airplane pilot.”

He said she recently brought a friend, who wants to fly for Mokulele, to the Hansens’ home.

“Personally, I didn’t think their chances of survival were good at all,” he said Friday afternoon. “I talked to someone earlier today as to when we should call their parents.”

“Finding somebody that’s floating in the water is just about impossible,” said Hansen, who served in the Air Force on search missions. “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Waves make a white splash, and that could look like a person.”

Hansen said the FAA should be looking more closely at general aviation aircraft, which are not as closely monitored as commercial aircraft.

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Freelance journalist Daryl Lee and the Associated Press contributed to this report.