"We heard a hard metallic boom and the front engine quit," co-pilot Edwards-Neil said in an interview in the hospital room the two men shared on Tuesday.

"Two or three minutes later, we heard another boom, then it was really, 'Yeah, we're going down.' "

The pair had five to eight minutes to prepare for a crash landing - just enough time to put on their survival suits, send a mayday message, and aim for a crash landing next to a pan of ice, where the pair hoped to wait out a rescue.

Edwards-Neil said he braced for impact by holding his door open, ready to get out of the plane before it sank.

The windshield smashed on impact, and forced his door shut, but he managed to stick his head far enough out of the window and smash the glass with his back.

The water was to the roof in five seconds, he said.

Fortunately, one wing of the plane was resting on an ice floe. The ice was strong enough for both to walk across the wing to the ice before the plane disappeared into the freezing water.

That left the two men alone, under a half moon and a darkening sky, with no food, shelter, heat or flares.

Master Cpl. Julien Gauthier, a search and rescue technician who helped hoist the two men from the fishing boat onto a Cormorant helicopter on Monday, said their actions were "textbook examples" of an intelligent response to an emergency.

"It's what they teach in survival classes," he said.