BELLEVILLE, Mich. (WLNS) — A disaster in the skies over southeast Michigan led to a heroic rescue after a fighter jet crashed near a lake during an airshow in Belleville.

The pilots ejected from the plane and landed in the lake before the plane impacted the ground on the other shore. Miraculously, nobody was injured from the ejection or the plane’s impact.

Boaters who helped rescue the downed pilots say that they were there to watch the show, but jumped into action as soon as they noticed something wrong.

“As soon as I saw the canopy come off and the ejection seats come out, I made the decision to just go,” said Charlie Rowell, who helped to pull the jet’s pilot from the water.

“It’s not something you ever thought you would see,” said Joshua Preston, who joined Rowell on the rescue. “And yeah, I heard the boat start and said ‘I’m going with ya.'”

The two raced to cover the half-mile between them and where the pilot and co-pilot landed. They then worked with other boaters to locate both the pilots and pull them to safety.

Both pilots suffered minor injuries and were taken to a hospital after being recovered. The people who helped rescue them said their first concern was for other people on the ground.

“You know he was obviously shaken up right, just what happened,” Preston said. “And I just double-handed grabbed him and set him over my shoulder onto the boat…The first thing they said was ‘I hope everybody is ok. I hope everybody is okay. Where’d the plane go? Where’d the plane go?'”

The plane landed just shy of an apartment complex near the shore of the lake and set fire to some cars in the parking lot. Other than that, no other damage was reported. The responders we talked to said it was the best-case scenario given the scary situation.

“Nobody was hurt,” Rowell said. “I mean to me it’s miraculous…The heroes are all over that lake. There were several boats that jumped into it, and there were people in the water with these guys.”