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- Tourists were stunned when a small plane crashed into the sea in Ocean City, Maryland, on Tuesday.
- The plane crash occurred around 6:15 p.m., Maryland State Police confirmed to Business Insider. No one was injured.
- Maryland State Police identified the pilot and sole occupant as 23-year-old Trevor H. Deihl.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
A small plane crash stunned beachgoers on July 16 at Ocean City, Maryland — a popular ocean destination that’s a three hour drive from Washington, DC.
Maryland State Police confirmed to Business Insider that no one was injured. The police identified the pilot and sole occupant as 23-year-old Trevor H. Deihl.
Deihl took off from Reedville, Virginia, which is across the bay from Ocean City, and intended to land at the Ocean City Airport. However, Deihl told police that he started having engine trouble and decided to crash-land into the ocean.
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The appearance of the single-engine plane gliding into the sea shocked some tourists.
"I happened to look up and I saw the plane coming right directly over top of us, and I said to my husband, ‘Look at that! That’s strange! It’s very close,’" Charlotte Hidgon, an Ocean City beachgoer, told CBS Baltimore. "The engine was making a sputtering noise and there was smoke coming out of the one side of it.
"From our angle, it looked like it was coming down in the sand on top of people," Hidgon added. "We were panicking like oh goodness is that going to come down and hit somebody’s family on the beach."
The plane landed about a quarter-mile from the shoreline, then floated towards the beach. The pilot simply swam to shore, according to a witness.
"It was nuts," Hidgon told CBS Baltimore. "It’s not something you see every day on the beach."
One witness who learned there were no injuries in the crash quipped, "I’m on vacation at Ocean City Maryland and a plane crashed into the water outside my hotel room. This vacation is wildin."
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Source: Business Insider – rpremack@businessinsider.com (Rachel Premack)