Small plane crashes off Florida coast

KEY WEST, Florida (CNN) -- The pilot of a single-engine plane that crashed in the ocean shortly after takeoff Thursday told the FBI that one of the passengers had tried to hijack the plane to Cuba.

The pilot of the Piper Cherokee, Thomas Hayashi, ditched the plane about 40 miles southwest of Key West around 12:15 p.m. EDT, said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.

Hayashi told the FBI that a Cuban couple in their 60s had rented the plane for a "mile-high" tour, where couples engage in sexual intercourse a mile in the air. But soon after takeoff, the male passenger told the pilot he wanted to go to Cuba, Hayashi said.

"The pilot tried to maneuver the plane to throw alleged hijacker off balance," said FBI Special Agent Judy Orejuela. "In doing so the passenger fell onto the throttle which made plane go into a dive" from which it could not recover.

Hayashi was able to send a distress signal before the plane crashed.

A Navy C-130 in the area on a training exercise was the first to reach the plane. It dropped a life raft to the pilot, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Donald Whittle.

A Coast Guard helicopter then picked the pilot up and took him to shore, where he was treated at a local hospital and released.

Hayashi told the Coast Guard that his two passengers were still in the plane, which had sunk. A five-hour search turned up no sign of the craft.

Hayashi told the FBI he knew only the first names of the couple that had rented the plane.

The single-engine plane was registered to Peter J. Green of Key West. Hayashi is part owner of a company called "Fly Key West" which rents planes for sightseeing tours as well as "mile-high" encounters.