A retired Canadian pilot who witnessed a float plane crash off the Honduran island of Roatan last week says he helped rescue a couple with a small child out of the water.

Larry Forseth, 63, told CTVNews.ca he was on a parasail boat in the Caribbean Sea not far from shore Wednesday when a small plane crashed nearby. It had taken off for a sightseeing tour with a family on board just moments before.

Forseth, a former Air Canada pilot who runs a boutique hotel in Honduras with his wife Linda, says the boat he was on was the first to arrive on scene.

"I said to the driver of the boat: ‘Quick – let's get over there,'" Forseth recalled in a phone interview from Honduras on Monday.

Forseth and his cousin, Paul Gullackson, dove into the water and swam toward the wreckage.

The plane was floating upside down, with debris strewn around. Four bodies were bobbing in the sea.

The father was holding his young son's head above the water and the pilot was hanging onto the mother, who appeared to be unconscious, Forseth said.

"Her eyes had rolled back. Her lips were really blue. She did not look good at all," Forseth said.

Forseth and Gullackson grabbed the woman and swam toward a 30-metre yacht that also appeared at the crash site.

There was a doctor on the yacht who offered assistance and people on that vessel helped pull her aboard. The whole family and the pilot were eventually transported to hospital.

The Roatan Port Authority confirmed the accident and said everyone involved had survived. Roatan is a popular tourist destination in Honduras, with various companies offering plane and boat tours of the area.

Forseth said the pilot, who may be American, was operating a Bay Island Airways float plane. He was not sure where the family was from, but thinks they had stepped off a cruise ship for the day.

Forseth, who is from Vancouver but spends months at a time running a beach retreat in Trujillo, Honduras, said he will be returning to Roatan Monday and hopes to get an update on the crash victim's conditions.

"I hope that everyone, and especially that baby, is doing OK," he said.