MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Two pilots whose helicopter crashed off Miami Beach Sunday said the experience won't keep them from flying again.

"We grabbed onto our seat belts and just focused on getting out," said pilot Martin Sintov.

Sintov and trainee Barnibus Szilagy were up in the air around noon, taking photos of the Miami Bill Fish Tournamient for Boat Pix, an aerial photography company. Suddenly, they said, the helicopter's engine popped and they came down.

"We tried to overcompensate and pushed the throttle. We came up a bit but then just dropped," said Sintov.

Dale Barnes saw it all from his fishing boat and called the U.S. Coast Guard on the radio.

"It was obvious something was seriously wrong. We cut our lines and just booked it to where we thought they were," said Barnes.

Sintov and Szilagy crashed into 7-foot waves about 2 miles off the coast of South Beach. Before Barnes and Coast Guard crews arrived, a sailboat went by and plucked the survivors out of the water.

"A little kid saw us. He was out sailing with his family and told his grandpa," said Sintov.

The two men were not injured. As for the chopper, it sank to the ocean floor.

While the aircraft and thousands of photos were lost at sea, Sintov and Szilagy said this failed photo-op won't keep them from going back up again.

"It's just another experience. You learn from it," Szilagy said.