BOCA RATON, Florida – Airplanes flying over beaches are not an unexpected sight, but it is quite unusual when they make a crash landing just offshore.
That’s exactly what happened Saturday morning as 23-year-old Faith Tenkley, who has been flying for four years, was forced to take her Piper PA30 series twin-engine propeller plane down in the Atlantic Ocean two miles east of Boca Raton Airport due to mechanical difficulty.
🤯Wow! A small plane flew right past me while I was running, and I recorded it making an emergency landing in the ocean near South Beach Park in Boca Raton, Florida.
I ran down the beach and caught up to it, saw the passenger safely on shore and watched the plane begin sinking… pic.twitter.com/8fNst7sxYE
— SCHD STAN | Craig (@SCHDETF) August 22, 2026
WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach reports: “She was en route to the Bahamas to pick up her parents when mechanical issues began about 15 miles west of Boca Raton.
“After the landing gear and right engine failed, Tenkley determined the runway was too dangerous due to the plane having a significant amount fuel … and opted to land in an open area of the ocean. Tenkley was the only person onboard and was not injured.”
The station spoke with Michael and Alexis Arizzi, who witnessed the incident while diving nearby around 9:40 a.m.
“We were out doing some dives just right out here, and after Michael came up from one of his dives, we noticed this plane was flying really low,” Alexis Arizzi said.
“We got Coast Guard on the radio, and I went into the console and was pulling out our medevac kit, an extra life jacket ready to go over there because there’s nobody else there. We’re ready to go over there and assist in whichever way that we could.”
Here’s a clip from the NBC Nightly News report about the plane ocean crash landing I witnessed and recorded today. The clip includes a brief eyewitness account from me.
🎥: courtesy of NBC Nightly News https://t.co/uBDsNANzDH pic.twitter.com/uox1sPv2uG— SCHD STAN | Craig (@SCHDETF) August 23, 2026
“It was a flawless water landing,” Michael Arizzi said, with his wife adding, “Yeah, she was in control the entire time. I was very impressed. That’s why we were confused about what was going on at first.”
Jeremy, another witness and professional pilot, also commended Tenkley’s handling of the emergency, telling WPBF: “From what I can tell over here, it looks like the pilot did a pretty good job. I fly professionally both for the airlines and locally here, and I teach here as well.
“The most important part they teach you in emergency support or anything is to fly the airplane all the way down. Based on the fact that it’s all in one piece, it seems like the pilot did that.”
The crash is being probed by the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Coast plane to retrieve the aircraft.
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