Small plane crashes into ocean — then pilot, passenger snap selfies, laugh

  • Pilot Owen Leipelt filmed as his friend’s plane hit the water off Half Moon Bay 
  • He alerted air traffic control and kept circling above the crash scene on Tuesday
  • In the water below, the pilot of the downed plane, David Lesh, was also filming
  • He captured the moment his plane sank before filming his rescue from the water
  • Both Lesh and his female passenger were rescued unharmed by the coast guard
  • Pictures show the plane sinking and the two survivors as the helicopter arrives
  • The two survivors even seem in good spirits, laughing and joking in the water  
  • The friends had left from Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose and were in the air together to take pictures of Lesh’s new aircraft when it lost power
  • The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the accident, a spokesman confirmed

This incredible footage shows the moment a small plane crashes into the ocean off the California coast – before a pilot and his passenger on board filmed their own rescue while being stung by jelly fish and treading water.

Pilot Owen Leipelt filmed as the engine on his friend’s new Beechcraft Bonanza light aircraft failed and the plane hit the water off Half Moon Bay. Leipelt alerted air traffic control to the incident as he kept circling above the crash scene on Tuesday.

In the water below, pilot of the downed aircraft, David Lesh, 34, was also filming on his waterproof phone as he and his only passenger, who has not been identified, found themselves treading water for 40 minutes before being rescued. They were unharmed.

Lesh told NBC and KRON4: ‘I was probably 3,400 feet, did everything I could. I couldn’t get the motor running and put it into the Pacific.

‘We skipped along the water for a few hundred feet and the impact was very minimal, it was not hard at all and we immediately opened the door and got out onto the wing.

‘We took a quick inventory of what was in the plane. I grabbed my cell phone and the keys to the car.

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‘I knew we had about 20 or 30 seconds before it sunk.’

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the accident, a spokesman confirmed to the DailyMail.com.

A spokesman for the FAA said: ‘The FAA and NTSB will investigate. The NTSB is the lead agency and it typically takes the NTSB a year or more to determine a probable cause of an accident.’

Lesh said he believes bad gasoline caused the plane to malfunction.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7379301/Incredible-footage-shows-plane-crash-ocean-two-survivors-film-rescue.html

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