Wild videos show a restored World War II-era plane making an emergency landing in the ocean, just meters from swimmers on a beach full of Florida.
WFTV footage showed visitors to the beach, including young children at sea, quietly gazing at the single-engine TBM Avenger as it flew toward them Saturday about 20 feet off the coast.
After a brief attempt to rise further, the plane, which was part of the annual Cocoa Beach Air Show, finally crashed into the water.
“Oh my God,” a woman snorted in a clip shared on social media, while another beach girl shouted, “Fast!” Take a photo!”
No one was injured and the pilot refused medical treatment, air show officials and local firefighters told Florida Today.
“I watched a video, and it made me think about what Sully did on the Hudson River,” Bryan Lilley, president of the Air Show, said of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s landing “Miracle on the Hudson.” in 2009.
“It was amazing. What a skill this pilot has, “Lilley told the Florida newspaper about Saturday’s emergency landing.” I’m very glad the pilot is fine, but I’m sorry the aircraft ends up in the water.
The plane, a torpedo bomber used by the U.S. Navy during World War II, had just been restored and crashed due to a mechanical problem, the Cocoa Beach Air Show said.
Witness Melanie Schrader told Florida Today that people realized something was wrong because they heard the plane “scouring the beach.”
“And he was saying to me,‘ oh, it doesn’t sound right, ’and I just started filming,” Schrader told the newspaper.
“It looked like (the pilot) stopped at the last minute and avoided spectators,” Schrader said. “There were a lot of people in the water and then I saw him on the plane. It looked good, ”he said.
The air show was scheduled to continue as normal on Sunday, Lilley told Florida Today.