Rosa Key has had a hard time sleeping — the events of Wednesday play over and over in her head.

"It was like slow motion," said Key, one of eight survivors of a plane crash in waters off Kalaupapa that took the life of state Health Director Loretta Fuddy.

"The plane going down. It’s still a blur."

Key, a Kalaupapa National Park Service administrator, and her husband, Jacob, were sitting on the right side of the Makani Kai Air Cessna Grand Caravan single-engine aircraft behind Fuddy when it crashed at about

3:30 p.m. Wednesday after taking off from Kalaupapa on its way to Honolulu.

The couple survived the ordeal, and Key told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that she and her husband were visiting a doctor Friday morning.

Like fellow survivor C. Phillip Hollstein Jr., Key praised Makani Kai pilot Clyde Kawasaki for the way he handled the situation.

Hollstein said Kawasaki was "the main reason we’re all still here."

Kawasaki was able to ditch the 42-foot plane about a mile off Kalaupapa, keeping it upright and floating.

"He (Kawasaki) tried to keep everyone together," Key said. "He was calling to everyone to stay together, even though he was bleeding."

Kawasaki, a 60-year-old veteran pilot, was flown to Honolulu after the crash, and when his son, Robert, met him at the airport, he still was wearing his wet pants.

The elder Kawasaki banged his head on the plane’s control panel during the crash, and his son took him to a hospital for treatment.

"He’s very broken up" about Fuddy’s death, the son said.

Robert Kawasaki said his father has a lifelong passion for flying and didn’t panic when the engine went out.

"To land on its belly with all the waves, that’s pretty impressive," he said. "He’s a glider pilot, too, so he knows what to do when a plane is stuck in a glide."

Fuddy was able to get out of the Cessna along with Kawasaki and the other passengers, but apparently died while waiting for rescuers.

The Maui County Medical Examiner’s office will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Fuddy, 65, and her deputy Keith Yamamoto were on the flight after an annual visit to Kalaupapa, which the Health Department oversees as home to Hansen’s disease, or leprosy, patients. The remote Molokai community, accessible only by plane or mule, is owned by the National Park Service.

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation into Wednesday’s crash but said ocean conditions in the area may make it impossible to retrieve the 11-year-old aircraft.

Richard Schuman, owner of Makani Kai Air, said Kawasaki told him that the crash was caused by engine failure.

Nearly two months ago another Cessna Caravan, operated by Mokulele Express, lost engine power after departing from Kahului Airport for Kamuela. The plane, with two pilots and eight passengers, landed safely on Piilani Highway in Kihei.

No one was injured, and there was no damage to the plane in the Oct. 21 incident.

Key said that shortly after the Makani Kai Cessna took off from Molokai, things went wrong.

"We were flying parallel to the cliffs heading for Honolulu," she said. "I hear a loud bang, a whistling sound. The plane started going crazy. The engine just stopped midair.

"The pilot then turned the plane to head it for shore."

From that point everything seemed to move in slow motion, Key said.

"When we hit the water, the first thing that came to mind was that you had to get out."

After exiting from a door on the right side of the aircraft, Key said she had trouble putting on her life vest.

"My husband and another man helped me put it on and inflate it," she said.

The ocean was rough.

"It was rocking back and forth," Key recalled.

"I had a hard time hanging onto the wing of the plane. The waves keep pushing me. It was rough."

Key said several passengers stayed afloat using seats thrown from the downed aircraft as flotation devices.

"Using the seat helped me stay afloat for more than an hour."

Key said she must have been in the water for about 20 minutes when a plane appeared overhead, circling the survivors several times.

Key recalled that after an hour in the water, both Coast Guard and Maui Fire Department helicopters arrived and began lifting survivors from the ocean using baskets.

Key said she had been commuting to Kalaupapa from her home in Waipahu for about a year.

She had just started a monthlong vacation Wednesday. Her husband had spent a week on Kalaupapa visiting his wife.

"Every other weekend I flew home and I never worried," Key said.

"I guess I took it for granted. I never expected anything like this because the company never seemed to have mechanical problems with their airplanes."

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.