By . Victoria Wellman . PUBLISHED: . 10:25 EST, 3 October 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 01:56 EST, 4 October 2012 . Two men who escaped with their lives when their twin-engine plane burst into flames and took a nose dive into the Gulf of Mexico, have not only lived to tell the tale of the harrowing ordeal but remarkably managed to document their survival with an iPad camera. As pilot Theodore Wright, 37 and his best friend, Raymond Fosdick, took off from Baytown, Texas in a tiny Baron aircraft on September 20th, they were looking forward to a smooth journey to Sarasota, Florida. But when after two hours the cockpit began filling with smoke, a high-risk emergency landing on water quickly looked inevitable for the two men. Scroll down for video . Survivors: Two men whose twin-engine plane crash landed in the Gulf of Mexico, floated in the water for three hours waiting to be rescued while filming their ordeal on an iPad recovered from the aircraft before it sank . Partners: Pilot, Theodore Wright (left) and his best friend, Raymond Fosdick (right) had been flying from Baytown, Texas to Florida when two hours after take-off, disaster struck . Rapidly descending 11,000 feet and landing some 30 miles from the Louisiana coast, the men grabbed the most important equipment for survival as the left the plane: flotation devices and of course, an iPad. Talking to the Today Show about their incredibly story, Mr Wright recalled the moment disaster struck along a route her had flown many times. Safe: Back on dry land, the pilot (left) and his passenger (right) told the Today Show how the cockpit began to fill up with smoke and before they could finish their SOS call they were covered in flames . 'We were flying along, I'm eating a bag of M&Ms, I check in with Houston centre,' he said. 'And then we see a little bit of smoke which typically is not a huge deal - usually a radio will smoke a little so you throw the electrical power off, everything's fine. 'I made a quick radio call to Houston centre, told them we have a problem. Before I finished the radio call, we were just covered, covered in smoke.' A pilot since he was just 15 years old, Mr Wright and his well-travelled friend immediately sprang into action, deciding together what steps they should take - the kind of cooperation, says Mr Fosdick, that ultimately saved them from the clutches of death. Vessel: Ted Wright's Baron twin-engine plane before it plummeted 11,000 feet into the Gulf of Mexico and sank 30 miles off the coast of Louisiana . Route: The journey from Baytown, TX to Sarasota, FL was a familiar one to Mr Wright who has been flying since he was 15 years old . 'There was no praying, there was no thinking the world was coming to an end,' he said. 'That's pretty much what saved our lives. Being able to recognise the aircraft's loss, now it's just save ourselves.' Mr Wright credited their astonishing ability to remain so calm and focussed on the problem, to training. 'You kind of go onto autopilot in these situations, no pun intended,' he joked from the comfort and safety of ABC's studio sofa. Indeed coastguards have called their emergency landing and the way they handled the terrifying ordeal as 'textbook', but what happened next was perhaps a little more improvisational and off-text than a traditional emergency plan might advise. On impact, as the plane began to sink . quickly and the men realised they had no time to waste in ejecting . themselves from the cockpit, Mr Fosnick grabbed an iPad that was . concealed in a water resistant protective case and plunged into the open . sea. Saved! After three hours floating adrift on the ocean, as the two men began to worry about the night ahead, they were spotted and airlifted to safety by a coastguard . Stoic: Mr Fosdick (left) and Mr Wright (right) kept calm throughout the ordeal comforted by the fact that they had set off an emergency beacon and rescue services should have been able to find them . Remarkably undamaged, the iPad camera was used by Mr Wright and Mr Fosnick to record moment-by-moment the events that followed their crash-landing for posterity, unsure of what fate would hold for them. The first clip was filmed within an hour of landing. With no sign of the coast guard or rescue emergency services, they calmly informed an audience: 'We did have a sport fisher on the horizon. We tried to flag him down. We tried to signal him without any luck.' What has inspired and amazed the public about the story is the unbelievable lack of panic or hysteria exhibited throughout the ordeal. 'People ask us "were you worried?" We . weren't worried at all,' explained Mr Wright in New York. 'We knew . there were three positioning devices that coud find us.' 'But . when the first aircraft passed over our heads and didn't see us and . we're waving and waving. And they still don't see us. And the second . aircraft shows up, they don't see us? Yes, we started to get nervous.' Modern rescue: The iPad filmed the two men as they tried to flag down a sport fisher and two planes to no avail and hope began to wane slowly . Yet with no hint of lost hope or melodrama, the pragmatic pilot spoke a final time into the Apple device. 'Hopefully this is the last recording because we will be rescued soon. Signing off,' he said before switching the iPad off. Luckily, their metaphorical prayers were answered and just before night fell, the two men were spotted and airlifted to safety by a coast guard. All involved knew that a night time rescue would have been next to impossible. Back on dry land and carrying his arm in . a sling, Mr Fosdick announced confidently to the Today Show: 'I have no . hesitation whatsoever of climbing into another aircraft again. My wife . on the hand... does not want me to do much.' Experienced: Mr Wright credited their survival to training and an ability to remain calm while focussing on the emergency at hand while his friend said working together was vital . And while his pilot friend allowed himself to admit that it was 'pretty scary,' he also informed viewers that he already has another plane and will continue his work to support the program Around the World for Life that gives aeroplane rides to kids to cancer. 'Nothing has changed, except the tail number,' he laughed. Asked a final time whether at any point they feared the worst, Mr Fosdick elaborated: 'Fear definitely plays a role. I won't lie and say I didn't have any fear... However because of experience and because we've been in stressful situations, we were both remaining calm and you begin looking at your options, even though they're very bleak and grim out there in the middle of nowhere. 'We did spot an oil rig just out on the horizon. It becomes one of those things of, "okay if it gets dark and they leave what are we going to do?" So there was some fear involved but it wasn't enough to overpower our patience.' Watch video here .
Theodore Wright and Raymond Fosdick were flying from Baytown, Texas to Sarasota, Florida when the plane began smoking after two hours .
The twin-engine plane plummeted 11,000 feet into the sea and sank 30 miles off the Louisiana coast .
Men relied on flotation devices for three hours before being rescued by coast guard helicopter .
By . Victoria Wellman . PUBLISHED: . 10:25 EST, 3 October 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 01:56 EST, 4 October 2012 . Two men who escaped with their lives when their twin-engine plane burst into flames and took a nose dive into the Gulf of Mexico, have not only lived to tell the tale of the harrowing ordeal but remarkably managed to document their survival with an iPad camera. As pilot Theodore Wright, 37 and his best friend, Raymond Fosdick, took off from Baytown, Texas in a tiny Baron aircraft on September 20th, they were looking forward to a smooth journey to Sarasota, Florida. But when after two hours the cockpit began filling with smoke, a high-risk emergency landing on water quickly looked inevitable for the two men. Scroll down for video . Survivors: Two men whose twin-engine plane crash landed in the Gulf of Mexico, floated in the water for three hours waiting to be rescued while filming their ordeal on an iPad recovered from the aircraft before it sank . Partners: Pilot, Theodore Wright (left) and his best friend, Raymond Fosdick (right) had been flying from Baytown, Texas to Florida when two hours after take-off, disaster struck . Rapidly descending 11,000 feet and landing some 30 miles from the Louisiana coast, the men grabbed the most important equipment for survival as the left the plane: flotation devices and of course, an iPad. Talking to the Today Show about their incredibly story, Mr Wright recalled the moment disaster struck along a route her had flown many times. Safe: Back on dry land, the pilot (left) and his passenger (right) told the Today Show how the cockpit began to fill up with smoke and before they could finish their SOS call they were covered in flames . 'We were flying along, I'm eating a bag of M&Ms, I check in with Houston centre,' he said. 'And then we see a little bit of smoke which typically is not a huge deal - usually a radio will smoke a little so you throw the electrical power off, everything's fine. 'I made a quick radio call to Houston centre, told them we have a problem. Before I finished the radio call, we were just covered, covered in smoke.' A pilot since he was just 15 years old, Mr Wright and his well-travelled friend immediately sprang into action, deciding together what steps they should take - the kind of cooperation, says Mr Fosdick, that ultimately saved them from the clutches of death. Vessel: Ted Wright's Baron twin-engine plane before it plummeted 11,000 feet into the Gulf of Mexico and sank 30 miles off the coast of Louisiana . Route: The journey from Baytown, TX to Sarasota, FL was a familiar one to Mr Wright who has been flying since he was 15 years old . 'There was no praying, there was no thinking the world was coming to an end,' he said. 'That's pretty much what saved our lives. Being able to recognise the aircraft's loss, now it's just save ourselves.' Mr Wright credited their astonishing ability to remain so calm and focussed on the problem, to training. 'You kind of go onto autopilot in these situations, no pun intended,' he joked from the comfort and safety of ABC's studio sofa. Indeed coastguards have called their emergency landing and the way they handled the terrifying ordeal as 'textbook', but what happened next was perhaps a little more improvisational and off-text than a traditional emergency plan might advise. On impact, as the plane began to sink . quickly and the men realised they had no time to waste in ejecting . themselves from the cockpit, Mr Fosnick grabbed an iPad that was . concealed in a water resistant protective case and plunged into the open . sea. Saved! After three hours floating adrift on the ocean, as the two men began to worry about the night ahead, they were spotted and airlifted to safety by a coastguard . Stoic: Mr Fosdick (left) and Mr Wright (right) kept calm throughout the ordeal comforted by the fact that they had set off an emergency beacon and rescue services should have been able to find them . Remarkably undamaged, the iPad camera was used by Mr Wright and Mr Fosnick to record moment-by-moment the events that followed their crash-landing for posterity, unsure of what fate would hold for them. The first clip was filmed within an hour of landing. With no sign of the coast guard or rescue emergency services, they calmly informed an audience: 'We did have a sport fisher on the horizon. We tried to flag him down. We tried to signal him without any luck.' What has inspired and amazed the public about the story is the unbelievable lack of panic or hysteria exhibited throughout the ordeal. 'People ask us "were you worried?" We . weren't worried at all,' explained Mr Wright in New York. 'We knew . there were three positioning devices that coud find us.' 'But . when the first aircraft passed over our heads and didn't see us and . we're waving and waving. And they still don't see us. And the second . aircraft shows up, they don't see us? Yes, we started to get nervous.' Modern rescue: The iPad filmed the two men as they tried to flag down a sport fisher and two planes to no avail and hope began to wane slowly . Yet with no hint of lost hope or melodrama, the pragmatic pilot spoke a final time into the Apple device. 'Hopefully this is the last recording because we will be rescued soon. Signing off,' he said before switching the iPad off. Luckily, their metaphorical prayers were answered and just before night fell, the two men were spotted and airlifted to safety by a coast guard. All involved knew that a night time rescue would have been next to impossible. Back on dry land and carrying his arm in . a sling, Mr Fosdick announced confidently to the Today Show: 'I have no . hesitation whatsoever of climbing into another aircraft again. My wife . on the hand... does not want me to do much.' Experienced: Mr Wright credited their survival to training and an ability to remain calm while focussing on the emergency at hand while his friend said working together was vital . And while his pilot friend allowed himself to admit that it was 'pretty scary,' he also informed viewers that he already has another plane and will continue his work to support the program Around the World for Life that gives aeroplane rides to kids to cancer. 'Nothing has changed, except the tail number,' he laughed. Asked a final time whether at any point they feared the worst, Mr Fosdick elaborated: 'Fear definitely plays a role. I won't lie and say I didn't have any fear... However because of experience and because we've been in stressful situations, we were both remaining calm and you begin looking at your options, even though they're very bleak and grim out there in the middle of nowhere. 'We did spot an oil rig just out on the horizon. It becomes one of those things of, "okay if it gets dark and they leave what are we going to do?" So there was some fear involved but it wasn't enough to overpower our patience.' Watch video here .
Raymond Fosdick, took off from Baytown, Texas in Sarasota, Florida. But when after two hours the the water for three hours waiting to be rescued from Baytown, Texas to Florida when two hours the plane: flotation devices and of course, an plummeted 11,000 feet into the Gulf of Mexico and sank 30 miles off the coast of Louisiana . Route: