Drone footage shows a pilot being dragged by his legs out of a submerged cockpit after ditching his plane in the ocean to avoid a busy beach. While flying over Oak Island beach in North Carolina, the small aircraft experienced an engine failure. Unable to return to the Cape Fear Regional Jetport, and seeing the beach area to be crowded, the pilot made the decision to perform an emergency landing in the ocean. Within minutes of landing in the water near the pier, units from the Oak Island Beach Safety Unit were at the plane.

Drone footage shows a pilot being dragged by his legs out of a submerged cockpit after ditching his plane in the ocean to avoid a busy beach. While flying over Oak Island beach in…

This is the dramatic moment a plane flips over after emergency landing in water, leaving the pilot trapped in a small pocket of air in the mostly submerged aircraft.

Drone footage shows a pilot being dragged by his legs out of a submerged cockpit after ditching his plane in the ocean to avoid a busy beach. While flying over Oak Island beach in…

Mark Finkelstein was pulled from his single engine aircraft on August 2 near Oak Island Pier, North Carolina , after having to ditch the plane into the water.