A 23 year old pilot has walked away from a dramatic emergency after putting her small plane down in the Atlantic Ocean off Boca Raton, Florida, during a solo flight. Onlookers along the shore were left stunned by the sight of the aircraft's tail fin sticking straight up out of the water, all that was visible of the plane after it came to rest just off the coast.
Speaking for the first time about her ordeal to ABC affiliate WZVN, the pilot, identified as Faith Tankley, described how a routine trip turned into a fight for survival. She had taken off from Fort Myers, Florida, flying alone and heading for the Bahamas, where she planned to pick up her parents, when the flight began to go wrong.
In the air, she was hit with a cascade of mechanical problems. Her plane had a broken landing gear and had lost its right engine, though she still had plenty of fuel on board. With the aircraft crippled but still flying, she had to make a rapid decision about where and how to bring it down safely.
Tankley feared that attempting an emergency landing at Boca Raton Airport, with a damaged landing gear, could trigger a fire on the runway. Weighing the risks, she decided that the ocean was the safer bet, a choice that meant guiding the failing plane toward open water rather than the airfield she had been trying to reach.
The approach to the water was anything but simple. She had to dodge waterfront buildings and even paddle boarders in the area before she finally found a clear spot in the water where she could set the plane down. It was a narrow, high stakes maneuver carried out in the moments before the aircraft hit the surface.
Once down, the plane began sinking fast. Help, however, was close at hand. A lifeguard reached her within about a minute, and a small armada of rescue boats arrived moments later, pulling her to safety as the aircraft slipped beneath the surface until only its tail fin remained above the waterline. The plane itself was pulled from the water later that day.
For all the danger, the outcome was remarkable. Tankley, who became a pilot straight out of high school and now has four years of flying experience, brought the plane down and survived what her rescuers and witnesses described as a picture perfect water landing, executed alone under extraordinary pressure. Her account offered a rare, first hand look at the split second judgment that turned a potential tragedy into a story of survival.