Pilot survives ditching plane into ocean off Hawaii after running out of gas (VIDEO)

A pilot flying from California to Hawaii ditched in the Pacific Ocean after running out of gas 13 miles off the coast of Hilo, according to U.S. news reports.

The pilot, 65, had radioed ahead to federal aviation authorities that he was 500 miles out and low on fuel, Petty Officer 3rd Class Angela Henderson told CNN. 

The Coast Guard sent a plane to rendezvous with Mellor's two-engine Cessna and separately a ship and helicopter to be ready for a rescue, spokesman Lt. Gene Maestas told The Associated Press.

After meeting up with the plane over the Pacific, the Guard's HC-130 Hercules flew alongside for more than an hour, until the aircraft's fuel gave out and it went down 13 miles off Hawaii.

A video released by the U.S. Coast Guard shows the plane gliding low over the water before splashing down. The pilot, identified as Charles Brian Mellor, 65, of Puerto De Santa Maria, Spain, then climbs out onto a wing as a helicopter lowers a rescue swimmer.

CNN quotes the U.S. Coast Guard as saying the Mellor was delivering the Cessna 310 twin-engine aircraft from Monterey.

According to Maestas, the Hercules pilots talked Mellor through the ditching process, the AP reports:

"We were communicating to him the entire time," Maestas said. "The pilots were telling him how to make the airplane ready … to lighten, tie things down, adjust the seat."

Mellor was urged to go in at a low angle to the water and touch down parallel to the waves — running at strong 6 feet — rather than absorbing their power by plowing into them head-first.

"We basically talked him down," Maestas said.

After ditching, the plane sank within minutes. Mellor, who appeared uninjured in the Coast Guard video, was helped into a rescue basket, lifted into the chopper, and taken to Hilo Medical Center.