Pilot Made Emergency Landing In Waters Off Virginia Key, Work Begins To Get It Out Of The Water

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Cell phone video shows the moments right after a Cessna 172 ditched into the ocean just feet off shore of Virginia Key.

"A cyclist screamed and shouted out a plane had crashed into the water. That's when me and my team rushed to the scene," said Amanda Dominguez.

She is with Miami Ocean Rescue. Dominguez and her co-workers were there when it happened. They raced to the rescue to help the two men who were on board.

"As soon as I started walking around this area right here, that's when I saw 2 people come out. Halfway through the shoreline. They made it out, I was assisting them out of the water and began assessing them," Dominguez said.

Yaselo Alfaro was there too. He spoke to the men on board, who said they had a mechanical problem before landing that plane on the water.

"The only thing I heard from the guy is that he moved the plane a little bit to the right because he was about to crash into rocks," Alfaro said.

According to Flight Radar 24, the plane took off from Miami Executive Airport just after 6:30 Thursday evening, flew out over the ocean turning north flying near Miami Beach, then it turned around heading back south before going into the water just off Virginia Key.

The entire flight lasted just 20 minutes. "He did say it was a mechanical failure and safely made an emergency landing," said Pete Sanchez from Miami Fire Rescue.

Sanches told us after that emergency landing there were a few tense moments as the plane made contact with the water.

"When they landed…started to nose dive into the water at first then leveled itself back out and they were able to make it out," he said.

The FAA and NTSB are investigating.