DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, Fla. – One person was safely rescued after a small plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Daytona Beach near the Dunlawton Bridge Tuesday afternoon, video from Sky 6 showed.
Video showed lifeguards pulling a man from the wreckage and onto the shore. Volusia County Beach Safety officials said the pilot, Richard Goosman, was alert and clinging to the wing when lifeguards approached him.
He told officials that his plane ran out of fuel before the crash. He was traveling from North Carolina.
After Goosman was rescued, lifeguards went back to the plane and were seen tying a rope near the cabin. They then used a jet ski to tow the sinking plane toward the shore, where a crowd of spectators had gathered.
"Yeah, they've got the beach lifeguards already pulled up with the jet ski. They're all over the beach as well. It looks like they got him out. It's definitely a single-engine. The whole front of the aircraft's kind of sinking. The rest of it is floating but it's slowly drifting further away from the shore now," Sky 6 pilot Jared Piche told Air Traffic Control shortly after 2:30 p.m.
Officials from Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety said they assisted with treating the sole occupant of the aircraft before he was transported to an area hospital.
[RAW VIDEO: Survivors rescued from small plane crash in Atlantic Ocean]
The department went live on its Facebook page as rescuers were responding to the scene. That video is embedded at the bottom of this story.
The right wing on the single-engine plane was broken, video showed. Coast Guard officials said there was no pollution from the plane.
By about 3 p.m., the plane was near the shore and lifeguards were using a rope tied to a beach patrol vehicle to tow it in the rest of the way.
The Federal Aviation Administration registry indicates that the experimental, amateur-built aircraft is registered to a man who lives in North Carolina.
Volusia County Beach Safety officials said they've asked FAA personnel to recover the aircraft, which will likely happen on Wednesday.
Check back for more updates on this developing story.
Editors note: Public officials initially told News 6 that two people were rescued from the aircraft. This story has since been updated to reflect that only one person was on board the plane.
Posted by Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety on Tuesday, October 16, 2018