Incredible moment Cessna 150 light aircraft crash lands into the Seattle seafront before lucky 66-year-old pilot swims to shore unharmed
- The 66-year-old pilot, who has not been named, managed to escape from plane
- The plane crashed into Puget Sound just off Seattle’s Alki Beach on Tuesday
- Video shows the aircraft flying close to water before crashing into estuary
A light aircraft made a dramatic emergency landing in shallow waters just yards from a Seattle beach before upending with a giant splash.
The 66-year-old pilot, who has not been named, managed to escape from the sinking craft and miraculously swam away to shore without a scratch.
The small, single-engine Cessna 150 crashed into Puget Sound just off Seattle’s Alki Beach Tuesday afternoon at around 4.20pm.
Video shows the aircraft flying close to the water’s surface before crashing into the estuary, with the impact of the crash flipping the plane over. The plane could be seen crashed nose down in the water before it began to sink.
Multiple emergency crews responded to the scene as photographs showed the ghostly white outline of the small plane sat beneath the water’s surface.
Video shows the aircraft flying close to the water’s surface of the Puget Sound just off Seattle’s Alki Beach
The plane then crashes into the estuary (left), with the impact of the crash flipping the plane over. The plane could be seen crashed nose down in the water before it began to sink (right)
Multiple emergency crews responded to the scene as photographs showed the ghostly white outline of the small plane sat beneath the water’s surface
The small, single-engine Cessna 150 crashed into Puget Sound just off Seattle’s Alki Beach Tuesday afternoon at around 4.20pm
‘I was putting my feet in the water and then I saw the plane coming and then it flipped over and then the plane was sinking,’ 10-year-old Zahra, who witnessed the crash, told Fox 13.
One witness added: ‘He was going down like he knew what he was doing. He was just going down and just went smoothly and he just went in there. He got out and he would just sit there.
‘He got guts. And he was very calm, but that’s what they’re learning to do. I wanted to say “good job”,’ another witness said.
The US Coast Guard established a temporary 150-yard safety zone around the plane to ‘ensure people and vessels maintain a safe distance from the aircraft.’
Officials said that the owner of the plane hired a specialist to remove the fuel from the plane to avoid an ecological disaster and to salvage the aircraft. Pictured: The aircraft is seen submerged
The Coast Guard responded to the plane that crashed near Alki Point on Tuesday afternoon
Officials said that the owner of the plane hired a specialist to remove the fuel from the plane to avoid an ecological disaster and to salvage the aircraft.
The pilot, after swimming to shore, was taken to hospital for a check-up in a private vehicle but had sustained no injuries, according to the Seattle Fire Department.
Jeff Kaufer, a retired airline pilot who still flies as a hobby, saw the video of the crash and he said he believes it was an emergency landing.
Kaufer told local TV station King 5 that it appears the plane may have had an engine failure or not enough power to stay aloft.
‘He did, in my best estimation, the best thing he could’ve done, and that was put it in the water,’ Kaufer said, adding there’s really nowhere around Alki where a plane can perform an emergency landing.
‘From what I hear, he’s OK and will live to fly another day,’ he said.
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