Dania Beach

Small Plane Makes Emergency Landing on Dania Beach

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A small plane made an emergency landing Tuesday afternoon on the sand off Dania Beach.

Footage from Chopper 6 shows a single-engine 172 Cessna aircraft on the sand at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park.

The pilot, who was the only one on board, was forced to land the plane at around 2 p.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Flight records show the pilot took off from Fort Lauderdale International Airport.

“The aircraft makes regularly scheduled trips from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas, and it appears in this case, the aircraft had possibly just taken off from Fort Lauderdale when it experienced engine trouble," said Chief Michael Kane of Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue.

“I looked up ahead and saw this plane coming in really super low, and I thought, wow, this guy is flying super low. Is he going to try and land here?" said Derek Thompson.

Thompson says he had to move out of the way before taking cellphone video of the moment the plane landed on the sand.

A pilot was forced to make an emergency landing of a small plane on Dania Beach. NBC 6's Amanda Plasencia reports

"He just kept getting lower and lower and eventually as he went past me, he landed almost right in front of me," Thompson said.

There were no injuries and the plane landed intact, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

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