US Navy plane overshoots Hawaii runway and crashes into ocean

A US Navy plane crashed into a Hawaiin bay after it overshot a runway in wet weather.

The Coast Guard responded but all of the nine people aboard the P-8A aircraft were uninjured.

It is not yet known what caused the plane to go off the runway at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

Photos show the aircraft in water, just offshore.

Witness Diane Dircks and her family had just returned to the dock after rainy weather cut their pontoon boat trip short when her daughter noticed the plane in the water. "We went running over to the end of the dock, and I took some pictures," she said. Ms Dircks, who was visiting from Illinois, said her daughter keeps a pair of binoculars on her for birdwatching, so she was able to see the plane and the rescue boats arriving. "It was unbelievable," she added. The Honolulu Fire Department received a 911 call for a downed aircraft shortly after 2 pm - it was cloudy and rainy at the time.

Visibility was about 1 mile, said local National Weather Service meteorologist Thomas Vaughan.

The P-8A is often used to hunt for submarines and for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. It is manufactured by Boeing and shares many parts with the 737 commercial jet. The plane belongs to the Skinny Dragons of Patrol Squadron 4 stationed at Whidbey Island in Washington state. Patrol squadrons were once based at Kaneohe Bay, but now deploy to Hawaii on a rotational basis. Marine Corps Base Hawaii is about 10 miles from Honolulu on Oahu. The base houses about 9,300 military personnel and 5,100 family members. It's one of several key military installations on Oahu. The base sits on Kaneohe Bay, which is home to coral reefs, a breeding ground for hammerhead sharks and a University of Hawaii marine biology research institute.