AVENTURA, Fla. - A decades-old Convair cargo plane ditched Saturday in a lake surrounded by condominium towers in a densely populated Miami-Dade County neighborhood, sending the pilot and co-pilot scrambling to safety.

 

The Miami Air Lease plane took off from the Opa-locka airport about seven miles away, had trouble with one of its two engines and tried to return to the airfield, said company office manager Alina Nodarse.

 

The Convair CV-340 couldn't make it all the way back and splashed down in Mall Lake, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Chris White.

 

"They wanted to make a landing at Opa-locka, but they were not going to make it," Nodarse said after the rescued pilots checked in by phone. "They landed there like that to avoid the buildings."

 

Pilot Alejandro Bristol and co-pilot Dennis Villavicencio climbed onto the fuselage, and one of them walked the length of the plane before being plucked off by rescuers. Nodarse said both are experienced pilots who have been with the 35-year-old, family-owned cargo carrier for many years.

 

Half of the fuselage and the tips of the propellers were sticking out of the water minutes after the crash landing.

 

Pleasure boaters began to gather around the plane with the words "Eelect George W. Bush" running the length of the fuselage. Nodarse said the family is Republican and the words were painted on shortly before the election.

 

Boat crews planned to surround the plane with an inflatable dike to contain any leaking oil. Trapped air was keeping the plane afloat, and emergency crews hoped to keep it from sinking by propping it up with air bags.

 

Nodarse believed the plane was carrying a load of luggage to Nassau, Bahamas. Convairs began flying in the 1940s.