Long Island Pilot Explains Decision To Land Plane In Water Off Rhode Island

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Long Island pilot walked away from a small plane crash with just scratches and bruises.

The Suffolk County man was forced to land in the waters off a Rhode Island beach on Saturday.

As CBS2's Hazel Sanchez reported, rescuers quickly pulled him to safety as his small plane sank.

East Moriches psychologist Alexander Piekarsky was definitely happy and relieved to be heading back to work Monday morning, considering the frightening weekend he had.

Saturday, while piloting the Beechcraft plane he was forced to land in the ocean off Rhode Island.

He said the small plane's propeller suddenly stopped working.

"There was like a pop and then a bang and then oil splattered all over the windshield," he said.

Beachgoers on shore couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"I noticed ahead of me there was a plane, and the plane was kind of coming at me, and I looked and say 'oh, that must be a remote control plane.' He ended up crashing about 100-ft off the beach," Tom Lockwood said.

Piekarski said he was attempting to head to an airport he had passed to make an emergency landing, but he quickly realized he wouldn't make it there.

"The next option was the beach and I look and everybody is having a wonderful Saturday on the beach, so that's out of the question, so the last option was to kind of skid it into the water," he said, "I skidded in, but my wing caught the water. That's how my head ended up looking like this."

Piekarski suffered only bumps and bruises. His neighbors are convinced it's more than just luck.

"That's totally amazing, God was truly with him. Thank God nobody got hurt or injured in this incident," neighbor Leslie Smith said.

Some are calling him a her for preventing a disaster, but he calls it good training in action.

"I think that's giving me too much credit, you're not going to run over people, you just put it where you need to," he said.

Piekarski said he is simply too busy to think about his close brush with death and is already back counseling his patients about ways to deal with the more typical stresses of life.

Piekarsky said he bought the plane from the family of a WWII veteran who had flown it to Normandy, France several years ago for a commemoration of the D-Day invasion.