Plane Pilot Relieved After Making Emergency Landing on Popular New Jersey Beach

A small single-engine Cessna plane survives an emergency landing in Ocean City, N.J., on June 1, 2019. Ocean City Police Department via AP

A pilot is glad to be alive after his small plane had to make an emergency landing along New Jersey’s coastline on June 1.

Ocean City Police confirmed a single-engine Cessna landed on an “empty beach” on the Jersey Shore near 49th Street at about 8:35 a.m. local time.

The pilot was the plane’s sole occupant and uninjured by the incident. The aircraft sustained minor damage.

No information was immediately released about the reason for the emergency landing, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Sanford School Athletic Director Joan Samonisky was on the beach when the plane touched down. He witnessed it tipping onto its wing for a moment before coming to a full stop on its landing gear.

“I took the video. [I] was walking across the beach and saw it coming,” Samonisky said on Facebook. “Glad I heard it coming and had time to move off the runway.”

The pilot can be seen disembarking from the plane without any injuries.

“[The] pilot is fine, he said the engine cut out,” Samonisky said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has attended the scene to conduct its investigation into what may have caused the plane’s engine to cut out mid-flight, the Daily Mail reported.

Fatal New Jersey Crash

Another pilot was not so lucky on May 29 when an earlier emergency landing in Ocean City ended in tragedy.

The Mooney M20J single-engine plane took off at Trenton-Robbinsville Airport in Robbinsville, New Jersey, at about 8 a.m. local time but crashed just 3.5 hours later about 1,200 feet from Cape May Lighthouse.

New Jersey State Police confirmed with AP the body of the pilot was recovered on May 31 and identified the next day as local Lawrence Klimek, 58, of Howell.

Sea Tow Cape May Owner and Captain Jack Moran, who worked with Northstar Marine on the recovery effort, confirmed that Klimek’s body was still strapped into his seat in the cockpit when it was found.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.

Associated Press contributed to this article.