HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (KNTV) – A small plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean and it was all caught on camera.
Cell phone video shows the plane skidding along the water off Half Moon Bay in California Tuesday.
The pilot’s friend was flying alongside him—taking photos of the ride—when suddenly, the power cut off and the plane went down.
The pilot and his co-passenger grabbed two flotation devices and a phone which they used to record the entire ordeal.
You can see them bobbing in the water for what the pilot said was about 30 minutes.
Eventually, the Coast Guard showed up and threw down a basket to rescue them.
It’s still not clear why the plane went down, but the pilot said he thinks he has an idea.
“I have a feeling it was something fuel-related,” pilot David Lesh said, “You know, the motor didn’t seize up. There wasn’t any crazy sounds. It just all of a sudden lost power. My temps went to zero. I tried switching tanks, I tried doing everything I could to get it going. It caught for a second when we were like 100 feet, 200 feet AGL, but it just didn’t take, and there wasn’t enough time to do anything else at that point.”
Other than the jellyfish stings, no injuries were reported.
The FAA and the NTSB will investigate the crash.
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