Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

On Thursday, deputies from the PCSO Marine Unit and the PCSO Underwater Search and Recovery Team were on hand at the Sun ‘n Fun Splash-In event at Fantasy of Flight in Polk City.

According to the sheriff's office, that afternoon, at about 3:40 p.m., a 1996 Searey being piloted by 59-year-old Bill West, with his wife Barbara, 56, as a passenger, both of Chuluota, Florida, experienced issues just after taking off over Lake Agnes.

“The aircraft flew around for about 20 to 30 minutes trying to come down,” said Dep. Bobby Brigman. “We actually looked at it through binoculars and we could see that the elevator on it wasn’t working and it had damage to the elevator.”

Bill West communicated to the ground crew that he didn’t have control of the aircraft, and made a hard landing in the water.

“He did land on the water and he porpoised several times on the water. We thought he might go over but he didn’t, thank God. We responded out there to him immediately, the second they were there. They gave us the thumbs up. They both said they were okay inside the aircraft,” said Dep. Brigman.

Deputies were on the lake and rescued the couple from the disabled aircraft, and then towed the aircraft to the dock.

Unbelievably, while they were towing the plane and the victims to safety, another seaplane that had just taken off crashed into Lake Agnes.

“We start towing him back to shore and we’re probably three quarters of the way back to where the ramp was to get them there and all of sudden we heard someone yell there’s another plane,” said Dep. Brigman. “This other plane was spiraling down at the other side of the lake. So, I told the people we gotta go.”

A 2004 Searey being piloted by 58-year-old Dr. Kevin D’Angelo of New York, with passenger Julie Vessigault, 36, of Oklahoma, rose approximately 100 feet into the air, turned over, and then crashed nose first into the water.

“We took off, we were about 100-feet up in the air and something snapped in the left wing and caused the plane to immediately spiral down into the lake,” D’Angelo said.

The deputies immediately offloaded their cargo at the dock, and headed to the second crash site, where they dove into the water and pulled Kevin and Julie out of the quickly sinking plane.

"I don’t think he could have swam to shore. He was just holding on to the plane. The water was probably about eight-feet deep there,” said Dep. Brigman.

D’Angelo was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center where doctors confirmed he suffered several broken ribs. He said he feels lucky that he only has a few broken ribs.

“I was thinking I was going to die. So many other things could’ve gone wrong. I could’ve been another 150-feet over land and I’m sure I would’ve been dead then,” he said.

D’Angelo said it took him two days to fly his plane from Buffalo, New York to Polk County. The pilot's recovering at a friend's house in Sarasota and said he's going to fly commercial back.

The Polk Sheriff’s Marine Unit says they’ve been coming to Lake Agnes for the past 10 years for the Sun ‘N Fun Splash-In event. But deputies say this is the first time that planes have actually crashed during the event.

“Every year it’s been uneventful,” said Dep. Brigman. “This is the first time and then we have one, nope, we have two. So, yeah, it was really shocking.”

The FAA is investigating the causes of both crashes.